Getting With the Times
by sharpieyum
Summary: Usagi finds herself back in the past when the Dark Kingdom was still around.What do you get when you have a 19 yr-old Usagi who knows all, a 14 yr-old Usagi, and a past Mamo that naturally teases the 14-yr-old Usagi? A very funny predicament!
1. Prologue

Hello, minna!!! I'm so glad you're here to read my fic ^__^ It's my very first one. I feel so proud.. NO-don't run away! It's not that bad, I swear ^_^; In fact, I think it's quite original. I hope. At least the plot line is, the series isn't, though. Speaking of that..  
  
I do not own Sailor Moon. Simple. No confusion, I hope. I am not Naoko Takeuchi or the person who owns Mixx manga, so now that that's all cleared..  
  
I really hope you enjoy this fic!  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
Getting With the Times  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
By SilverIndigoSky  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
Rating: PG for now, though I can't guarantee it for later chapters ^_~  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
Prologue:  
  
The pretty nineteen-year-old, Tsukino Usagi, cried out in frustration despite her lack of breath. She had been running continuously for the past half-hour, trying to find the Brat. Okay, so maybe her real name was Chibi- Usa...Usagi still thought that the name of Brat fit her much, much better...  
  
So here she has been, running and running and running in the same deserted areas of the park, trying to locate that little, infuriating spore of a child. It was nearly 9:00, and dark and chilly outside. Usagi wanted to get home, have some huge meal, and then go over to her Mamo-chan's apartment to snuggle up to him. She did NOT want to go around chasing little annoying kids. Besides, shouldn't a girl so young as Chibi-Usa be in bed sleeping by now?  
  
Oh, wait a sec...that's right. Chibi-Usa was over 900 years old. Not exactly what you'd call young.  
  
Usagi silently glowered at the thought. That kid had always been a head- ache to her. And so unpredictable in her actions. One minute the pink- haired child would be the sweet, docile child (though not so young) she was supposed to be. And then the next minute she would be an utter nightmare, who could really get herself, and everyone else, into a very sticky mess. Usagi could recall at least 50 disasters started solely by Chibi-Usa.  
  
And that was exactly why Usagi was running like the fires of hell were at her heels. She had to find that little...terror...before that mischievous soul wound herself up in another dangerous web with her careless actions and nonsensical sense of adventure.  
  
Usagi's breathing was now coming in short, painful gasps, and her legs were starting to greatly wear out. Even with all her years of being Sailor Moon, nothing had prepared her so that she could run like a marathoner for so long.  
  
Suddenly, Usagi's tired legs just gave out. With one last wobbly, unsteady lunge forward, she toppled over onto the ground with a groan. She just lied there for a few minutes, unable to do anything except for take many deep breaths in to fill her oxygen-deprived lungs. When she got her hands on Chibi-Usa.....  
  
Speaking of, where was that girl? Sure, Usagi had been on her trail for a while now, but she still had had plenty of time to get very far since the time Usagi gave up and landed on the ground, not bothering to use whatever precious energy was left in her to pull herself up. She still had to save some for when she visited her dear boyfriend, Mamo-chan, later.  
  
Usagi unconsciously pulled her hand from her side to lay on her chest, numbly fingering the beautiful pearl ring on her finger. Mamo-chan had given it to her about three years ago, when she had been sixteen, and he was leaving for that trip to America. Of course, he never did get there, for Galaxia had killed him. But no need to relive that, now is there?  
  
She never took that ring off of her finger. It meant everything to Usagi. Mamo-chan gave it to her as a promise ring. It was his promise to her of the future they would have together someday, the family that they would create with each other. She would never take it off for the world. Of course, with that family would come Chibi-Usa, their pesky future daughter, but Usagi supposed she could get used to it. After all, the annoying little child did symbolize their future, love, and forthcoming family. She was cute sometimes, too; heck, even downright adorable! But usually that was not when she was stirring up trouble, like what the danger-attracter was doing now, for instance.  
  
Usagi cursed her future-self. She was way too easy to convince in the 30th century. She wished, wished, WISHED that Chibi-Usa, once she finally left for home three years ago would have actually stayed there, and never have seen Usagi again until the time was right. (*ahem*)  
  
But, naturally that wasn't so. Somehow that weasel managed to convince her mom, A.K.A. Usagi's future-self, to let her go back to the past one last time, to see the "gang" one last time...  
  
Usagi grumbled at the thought.  
  
'Thank you so vvveeeerrrry much, future Usagi!" she called out sarcastically to the clear night sky.  
  
Usagi's off track thoughts (not that there was anything knew with that, or anything) somehow managed to get back to the original question of where Chibi-Usa was and what she was doing right now. God only knows...and Usagi, personally, did not want to be let in on the bit of information.  
  
Usagi grudgingly knew that she would have to find her eventually, though, and bring her back home, where she should have never run away from to begin with, even if it was just in a burst of her youthful (or ancient) playfulness and need for constant action. With that thought, Usagi slowly pulled herself up from her quite comfortable resting position on the grass, and slowly ambled through the beautiful park scenery, cloaked in the gorgeous shadows of the night and dancing beams of light from the moon.  
  
She looked up at the moon and smiled. She thanked the moon. If she had never had her life on the moon, she would have never had Mamo-chan.... Boy, did she love that man of hers...so handsome...so sexy...such a good kisser...and a gentleman on top of everything else....  
  
And at that very moment, interrupting her wonderful thoughts, the trouble started, and she knew very well who started it. After all, Chibi-Usa was the Queen of All Troubles. Not to mention, the high-pitched, childish giggles that Usagi knew so well that preceded the event next to come could have only belonged to her.  
  
Those familiar giggles, as was mentioned, flitted through the air lightly, reaching Usagi's ears. The joyous yet completely mischievous tone of the giggles sent shivers down Usagi's spine. She could not help but feel apprehensive at what was next to come, for something Chibi-Usa found amusing surely could not be something that was safe, particularly for Usagi. No, nothing Chibi-Usa ever did for fun ended happily for her. Within the next minute, Usagi noticed a bright, white sparkle form somewhere off in the distance. She watched it with curious eyes, not knowing what it was or what was going on. As the pinpoint of light grew, and floated up high into the sky, Usagi suddenly found herself being overcome with worry. This could not be good....  
  
Usagi chocked out a desperate cry as the minuscule glitter soon flared up violently in just a few short seconds. Her body shook with as fear and trepidation took her over. The light seared in the sky, growing larger and brighter by the second. Usagi found herself running, her face pale and frightened, in no real direction, just wherever her feet would take her.  
  
"Chibi-Usa?!" she suddenly screamed into the night-time air, still except for the tremors emanating from the fiery ball that was quickly taking over the sky, casting a spooky, supernatural glow over everything within the vicinity.  
  
"Chibi-Usa!" Usagi shrieked in a shaky voice, laced with pure fearfulness. "Chibi-Usa!" she repeated, even more desperately.  
  
Usagi was hardly able to comprehend what was going on as the roaring light become larger still. She just knew that whatever was going on had to do with Chibi-Usa, someway or another.  
  
She stopped her frantic running, and slowly turned to face the source of the light which now encompassed everything around her in its ghastly, abnormally bright glow. Her breathing, as odd as it was, slowly returned to normal, even as the searing flashes from whatever threatened her caused the air around her to become hot and heavy on her body.  
  
"Damnit," she rasped. "Damnit," she repeated. And then with one last breath, she shouted out, "DAMNIT, CHIBI-USA! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"  
  
Just as the last syllable escaped her lips, the blinding, fiery light roared and flared up again, closing in on her and nearly crushing her with the force of its searing power. Everything around her dissolved in the frightening white of the object.  
  
For a few seconds, Usagi thought she was dead. She couldn't feel, hear, or see anything. She was just suspended there oddly. Was she even standing, or was she somehow floating? She just didn't know. Everything was deathly still and quiet around her.  
  
In one last, quick flash of light, everything around her was quickly plunged into darkness.  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*  
  
So.how was it? Good, bad, pointless? Probably pointless, I have the tendency to ramble on, or at least my English teacher believes so. Huh. They're so picky. Anyway, this is just the prologue, I'm sure you realized, and I'm planning much, MUCH more. The next chapter will be a lot funnier, and it'll probably be out in maybe two or three days (it is the weekend, you know) so I suggest you check back, if you like it that is ^_^; I hope you did! Speaking of.might be nice to get some reviews there. Or e-mail I appreciate a lot too! ^_^ Ja ne till next time, minna!  
  
~SilVeRINigoSky~ 


	2. Behind the Bushes

Hi again!!! Back with the next installment of "Getting With the Times."  
  
I think by now we have established the fact that I do not own Sailor Moon, but just for the record, let me say: I do not own Sailor Moon! There. Now it's official! Two times over!  
  
Hope you like this chapter!  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
Getting With the Times  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
By Silver Indigo Sky  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
Rating: PG  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
Chapter 1-Behind the Bushes  
  
Usagi woke up slowly to the feel of a fresh, warm, spring morning. Some birds were chirping above her, and she could hear the steady sounds of the wind blowing gently against the trees and occasionally the light voices of people as they walked by.  
  
She opened her clear, light blue eyes to find that she was in the park, lying on the grassy ground. For a few seconds, she just sat there numbly, still very sleepy, before the memories from the previous night started to drift back into her mind. She jumped up from the ground, completely awake, in sudden fear of what could have happened. It took her a few seconds to regain her senses again. She decided that maybe instead of being a baby like she usually was, she should reason this out.  
  
She was still in the park, just like she had been last night. That made sense. She remembered the unbearable, burning white light, and then that horrible squeezing sensation, and then, finally, she remembered nothing. She must have fainted, she reasoned. It made perfect sense. But even if that made sense, what had happened previous to her fainting did not make sense, not in the least.  
  
What had that been anyway, and what caused it. To her, it had looked like an enormous star; really fiery, bright, and hot. But why had it been there? It perplexed her beyond belief. Usagi could begin to feel a thumping head- ache coming on, as it usually did when she thought of anything that required real thinking out. Perhaps she would leave this case for brainy Ami to figure out, as she usually did. Usagi decided on that.  
  
She took a look around the green, gorgeous park. It didn't look any different, and it certainly didn't look like it had been affected in the least by the.the.well, whatever that thing was. She took a huge breath in, trying to calm her racing head.  
  
She probably just fainted last night, that's all. No apparent harm was done, and she should be thankful for just that. She would find one of her fellow senshi, and explain to them the events that occurred, and she had full confidence in them that they would figure it out. And Usagi was sure that they had found Chibi-usa and taken her with them too. Usagi was even more sure that if Chibi-usa had been the cause of the glowy ball thing, then she had probably fessed up to the senshi already, and they were ready to supply Usagi's bombardment of questions with adequate answers.  
  
That had to be it, she thought, getting happier as she realized the situation wasn't really all that bad. In fact, now that she thought about it, it had actually been pretty fun. So Usagi found herself chuckling happily as she began to walk through the park.  
  
Why all of her messes with that pink-haired weirdo seemed so funny afterwards was beyond her, but they did nevertheless.  
  
When she remembered that she must have missed her date with Mamo-chan, she got a little upset. But she had all day to make it up to him! Usagi smiled smugly at the thought. She was positive he wouldn't be mad at her for missing it. After all, just saying "Chibi-usa" would easily explain everything.  
  
Usagi's stomach gave a sudden, sharp growl. Looks like it was time for her to get something to eat.. She wasn't sure when the last time she ate was, but she knew it was a while ago.  
  
Usagi dug her hand into her pants pocket, searching for some money. She smiled brightly when she found she still had 1,000 yen in her pocket from the other day. She decided she would head over to the arcade first, to buy a milkshake and a small meal, before heading on to Ami's house.  
  
Usagi was just about to exit the park when she heard a familiar voice drift from somewhere behind her, a giggly voice filled with mirth and laughter, and one that sounded very young without belonging to a little kid's. A voice that sounded oddly like.her own?  
  
No! It couldn't be! That was impossible, for it to be her voice! Or, was it?  
  
Usagi whipped her head around to face the person whose voice it was, and her jaw dropped at the unbelievable sight before her. Sure enough, Usagi's eyes beheld herself! Herself walking alongside Makoto. This was wrong! Something was completely wrong with this! How could this be?! Usagi's mind raced, and no possible solutions as to what was going on right now were coming to her. Usagi did the first thing that came to her, and followed her natural instinct. Having been a sailor senshi for over five years, that natural instinct was to hide. If you weren't sure of the trouble that was going to occur, avoid it and TAKE COVER!!!  
  
Usagi, quick as lightning, sprinted behind nearest bush she could find and ducked under it. She was quite thankful that it was not a rose bush (can you say "pain?").  
  
She settled herself beneath the thick green leaves of the bush, which gave her much protection against being seen by her duplicate and her friend's duplicate. Usagi noticed one different thing between her and.herself.immediately. Though they were carbon copies of each other, the Usagi in front of her looked a lot younger. It was as if she was her past self, or something.  
  
Just as she that thought passed through her mind, the realization of what must have happened hit her. Usagi was in the past! It made perfect sense now! Everything did.  
  
That was how Chibi-usa was involved in everything. The mischievous little girl, after all, was the only one who had a time key, and knew how to use it. She always carried it with her in case she had to go back to the future on short notice. And though that was all good, the girl had a tendency to play and fidget with it, treating time-traveling as if it were all a game.  
  
Even the bright, star-like sparkle in the sky made sense. Usagi had seen it many times when saying good-bye to Chibi-usa, even though the spoiled child would always come back within the next month. It had been the power of the time key, opening up the portal to travel through time. It had just never gotten so bright, powerful, or dominating before.  
  
Still, Usagi felt greatly relieved with the knowledge of what must have happened. She could breathe normally again, without worry of hyperventilating. She knew for a fact what had happened and where she was. She knew that, once she located the elusive brat named Chibi-usa, whom, might she add, caused this whole thing to begin with, she could easily correct this problem and send them back to the time period where they belonged. Simple, right?  
  
Wrong! Wrong! Completely and utterly wrong! Usagi quickly realized that her predicament was not so easy to get out of or bear through while she was stuck in it, for at that exact moment, a youma decided to attack. A youma from the Dark Kingdom. A youma that Usagi must have "moon-dusted" five years ago..  
  
This was going to be a very interesting experience for both Usagi's, past and present.  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
Hino Rei, Mizuno Ami, Aino Minako, and Kino Makoto were chatting with one another in the Cherry Hill Temple. They were waiting patiently for their friend, Tsukino Usagi, to join them as well. Everyone except for Rei were waiting for her patiently anyway. But Rei knew there was nothing she could do to get that forgetful blonde over here any sooner, and by this point in time she was also quite used to Usagi's perpetual lateness.  
  
She sighed, a bit vexed, before getting on with things and offering the other three tea.  
  
"Shouldn't we wait for Usagi to show up before you serve tea?" Minako pointed out.  
  
"It's already been over a half-hour, and still that girl's a no-show. Personally, I'm tired of waiting for her. That girl's nineteen, and still she has not improved since I first met her, when she was fourteen. She has GOT to learn responsibility some time or another. I mean, really! Is she just going to be late to her wedding, just like this?" was Rei's frank response.  
  
"Probably not," wise Ami put in. "When it comes to anything having to do with Mamoru, she is usually on time, and quite willingly. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she was there right now."  
  
"Yeah," Makoto put in. "And they had a date last night, remember. You know how those to are!" she grinned devilishly. "I'm sure they could go on all night!" To emphasize her point, she even licked her finger and pressed it against her skin, making a sizzling sound.  
  
All of the girls groaned in protest at the risqué comment, all tossing whatever throw pillows they could find on the couches next to them at Makoto.  
  
"What?" Makoto asked innocently. "I'm just telling it like it is!"  
  
"We don't care if it's true, false, whatever! We just don't want to hear it," replied Rei. "Let's keep conversation humane here, OK?" Makoto grumbled.  
  
As if on cue, Chiba Mamoru decided ran through the doors to Cherry Hill Temple at that exact time, heading into the room where all the girls were camped in. Rei's grandpa didn't mind. He knew Mamoru well, and trusted him.  
  
"Hi, Mamoru-kun," Rei greeted, a bit surprised. Mamoru looked around the room at the others.  
  
"Hey guys! Have you-" he stopped mid-sentence upon noticing Makoto "Should I ask what you were doing?"  
  
The girls all shook their heads "no," and it was very fortunate for Makoto that she was covered in pillows, so that Mamoru didn't see her almost break out into full-force laughter at the irony of the situation.  
  
Mamoru, very used to the girls' antics (he never did understand them), disregarded whatever they had done to Makoto, or, more appropriately, whatever Makoto had done to make them do that to her, and continued on with what he had been saying.  
  
"Anyway, I was wondering if any of you had seen Usako yet today."  
  
"No," Ami told him. "She was supposed to be here 45 minutes ago, but we figured she was with you."  
  
"Well, she wasn't," Mamoru mentioned, and he heard Makoto let out a devilish snicker. He glanced her way, giving the brunette a suspicious look, before deciding he should disregard that as well, for his own good. Mamoru slid one of his hands through his thick, gorgeous, ebony-shaded hair. "She didn't even show up for our date last night." At the comment, all of the girls' expressions melted into that of extreme shock.  
  
"REALLY?!" they all exclaimed. One could have said that dinosaurs were still alive, and they would have been just as surprised. Mamoru nodded.  
  
"Usako can be awfully late sometimes, but it isn't like her to just miss a date. She didn't even call me," he said. His beautiful midnight-blue eyes were full of worry, and his voice sounded so upset. The girls just stared at him. It wasn't like Usagi to miss a date with Mamoru-never! For once in their lives, they were speechless. Something must have happened to cause her to do something like that-something big.  
  
Suddenly, Chibi-usa ran through the doors of Cherry Hill Temple at light speed. Her face was red from running and she looked very worn out. Everyone in the room watched the ruby-eyed girl silently as her heavy breathing returned to normal and her panting died away. She appeared to be in a very frazzled state.  
  
"Chibi-usa-chan?" Mamoru began very carefully, edging towards her. "Is everything all right?" Chibi-usa blatantly ignored him.  
  
"You guys.," the little girl began cautiously. Her eyes looked almost fearful, which was very odd for someone like Chibi-usa. Minako nodded her on, encouraging her to speak. Chibi-usa complied with her request.  
  
"I think...," she began, "I think.," another nod, this time from Mamoru, and she blurted it out. "I think I did something very bad!"  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*  
  
And there ya have it. End of chapter 1-Behind the Bushes. Hope you like it! ^_^ I got it out in only one day too! I'm so proud! The next chapter is going to be called "Behind the Buildings." I'll either have it out tomorrow or next weekend, not sure when but oh well. I hope I get some reviews for this!!! That was a hint for you guys who have made it this far and are still reading this fic. Nothing else for me to say... see ya next time! ~*^Silver Indigo Sky^*~ 


	3. A Yen for Every Strange Expression

Silver Indigo Sky back with chapter 3 of Getting With the Times!  
  
I don't own Sailor Moon, though that shouldn't be new to anyone.  
  
First, though, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed this story! Thank you so much! You don't know how much I appreciate it! ^_^ Those reviewers are aquarius, moonchild-02, Matakishi Hirata-San, aurora, missaw, fireash, Daphne Holland, Eo, Namiko-Daughter of Sekhmet, Cirque du Macabre, and Silver Moonlight-81. Thanks again everyone. You guys are wonderful!  
  
Cirque du Macabre, thank you for telling me that I was not accepting anonymous reviews. I did not know it! I fixed it so anonymous reviews are accepted, so now it'll be easier for you ^_^  
  
And as for Matakishi Hirata-San (and others who are curious), my goal is to update at least once a week. I was very good this weekend, and actually managed to add a chapter each and every day, but now that the weekend's over (ugh), I probably won't be able to update so soon. I will definitely update by Friday, that's for sure, and if I get lucky with the amount of homework I get, maybe even sooner. You'll just have to keep on checking back, I guess. ^_~  
  
Hope you like this chapter!  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
Getting With the Times  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
By Silver Indigo Sky  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
Rating: PG-13 ish  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
Chapter 2-A Yen for Every Strange Expression  
  
"CHIBI-USA!!!" Rei screamed, "How could you?!"  
  
"I didn't mean to! Honest to goodness, I never thought my power would go out of control like that!" Chibi-usa replied in a trembling voice as tears started to form in her eyes. Chibi-usa didn't want to cry right now and further prove to the senshi that she was a baby, but with Rei's harsh scolding, she couldn't help it.  
  
"Look, Chibi-usa, it's okay," Mamoru quickly came in to rescue poor Chibi- usa. He couldn't stand to see her cry. He placed a large hand on her head and smoothed her hair in a soothing manner. "Rei isn't mad at you, she's just worried. We all her. I mean, if Usako truly has been thrown into another time, as you say, we are going to have a hard time locating her, and we have no idea what is going on with her at the time."  
  
"I know!" Chibi-usa sobbed, finally forfeiting holding back her tears. "I know!" she repeated, choking on her tears as the poured from her eyes. "And it's all my fault! If Usagi-chan gets hurt, it's all my fault!" she cried, throwing herself into Mamoru's comforting arms.  
  
"It's okay, Chibi-usa. Nothing is going to happen to Usako. It'll just take awhile to find her," he soothed the small child, curled up and crying desperately in his arms. "Nothing is going to happen to her," he repeated confidently, though in reality he honestly wasn't sure whether he was saying that to convince himself or Chibi-usa of the fact.  
  
"Is it working, Ami-chan? Can you get through to Usagi?" Minako questioned the blue-haired girl who was fidgeting fervently with her sailor communicator. After a minute more of pulling-this-wire-and-pressing-that- button, Ami stopped her work on the communicator, defeated.  
  
Ami shook her head sadly. "No," she responded to Minako's previous question. "Nothing seems to work. I just can't get through to her via the communicator. All I'm getting is static or a blank screen."  
  
"The wall between the two different times must be interfering," Mamoru mentioned. "It is, after all, impossible to send a call to someone yesterday with today's phone." The senshi shook their heads in agreement. Just like you can't communicate with different dimensions, the different portals through time prevented you from communicating with someone in a different day, or even a different hour.  
  
"So, how are we going to find her?" Minako asked. Everyone was silent for a few minutes, each secluded in their own thoughts, before Minako had an idea. "I know!" she chirped. "Since Chibi-usa was the one who sent Usagi into the past, perhaps she has an idea of what day she sent Usagi into!"  
  
"Good job, Einstein," Rei cheered sarcastically, "except for don't you think that if that were the case, Chibi-usa would have already given us this tidbit of information?" Minako shrugged, not wanting to admit Rei had a logical point.  
  
"You guys," Mamoru cut in, "I thought we had already established the fact that Chibi-usa's power had gone out of control when this happened, so even though she is the one responsible, she does not know how much power was exerted and where that power sent Usako to. We have all had our bouts with power-gone-out-of-control, and we all know how it works when it is lose on it's own."  
  
"Yeah, you never know what the uncontrollable power is going to do on it's on," Makoto agreed.  
  
"Well, this is great," Rei snorted. "So you guys are saying that she may be in prehistoric times, or she may be in yesterday?"  
  
"Yes, and once again, we find ourselves in the same problem," Ami answered.  
  
Rei grumbled and let out a frustrated scream, rolling her eyes and flopping onto the couch she had been pacing in front of.  
  
"Well, you're being rude," Makoto said to her, "and there's no need to be." Rei groaned. "Listen, you guys," Makoto continued, "it's obvious that none of us are cut out to find a solution to this, but I know someone who is!"  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*  
  
Even though Usagi hadn't experienced a youma attack for ages now, literally, she still knew what it was immediately.  
  
The air quickly became heavy with an almost static-like energy which usually preceded any youma appearance. The sky also darkened ominously, denoting the oncoming evil. And if that wasn't enough, Usagi could feel her spine tingling and her hairs standing on end as her back straightened unconsciously, her body preparing itself for her transformation.  
  
Even though she hadn't actually had an enemy for a little over 2 years, she still wore her Sailor Moon brooch proudly, in case she did need it sometime or another. And there were a few circumstances when she had had to transform too. Besides that, her brooch contained the ginzuishou. Besides the love of her life, Mamo-chan, the ginzuishou was the most important thing to her. Without it, she, as well as the whole world-even universe!- would have been obliterated by now  
  
Usagi deftly gripped the pendent on her chest, ready to morph into Eternal Sailor Moon if need be. She supposed she could transform into Princess Serenity also, but why bother?  
  
The Usagi and Makoto of this time, who were walking and bantering peacefully through the park, seemed just as attuned to the sudden change in the atmosphere and the signals of the upcoming youma appearance as the future Usagi was. They quickly stopped and looked around at the scenery around them, and into the darkening, suspicious sky.  
  
"Oh no," they young Usagi grumbled. "Not again!" she whined. "I don't want to have to transform and vanquish another youma! Didn't we just have to deal with one less than a week ago? Why can't the Dark Kingdom just leave us alone! I wish that the Moon Princess or whatever the heck she is would come already and make herself known! I really hate this Sailor Moon thing!"  
  
"Uh-oh" was the extent of Usagi's thoughts as the words from her past self reached her ears. The young Usagi had said something about the "Dark Kingdom" and that she wanted "the Moon Princess" to come already. "Uh-oh, this is not good," Usagi whispered to herself.  
  
If Usagi was in the time of the Dark Kingdom, then that meant that they hadn't even defeated Beryl and Metallia yet! And here Usagi was, having not- too-long ago defeated Chaos, all thanks to Galaxia.  
  
Usagi got a little more worried when she realized that they didn't even know the other scouts, the outer scouts, like Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, or Saturn. Or even Chibi-usa! They must not even know who Chibi-usa is! Usagi couldn't honestly remember life without that spoiled little girl in it. Speaking of whom.. Usagi quickly decided that the minute she got back to her correct place in time, she would mutilate that monster. Or the least she could do was make a mental note in hear head that in 1,000 years, when her troublesome child got back from the past, she should ground her daughter for a few months, maybe years.  
  
Thinking of Chibi-usa brought another, very important, thing to Usagi's mind. "Mamo-chan!" she quickly spluttered. Or rather, there was no Mamo- chan! How could Usagi forget their relationship during this time?! Oh no, she could never forget, and she remembered it well! It could be summed up in three short words: they were enemies. Mamoru would tease her, she would yell back at him, he would make fun of her some more, she would insult him and tell him to get lost, he wouldn't leave his post, and finally she would tell him she hated him. Yup, that was about it.  
  
Now their relationship was more something like: he would greet her, compliment her sweetly, and kiss her, she would gladly kiss him back and call him "my Mamo-chan," he would invite her somewhere, usually his apartment., and she would excitedly accept, and they would be there, which was usually his apartment., within minutes. And you know the rest! And if you don't, you can use your imagination.  
  
Usagi blushed deeply as images of Mamo-chan filled her mind. She sighed contentedly as she absentmindedly tugged on one of her golden "odangos." Odango Atama.just like what Mamo-chan used to call her. She grumbled as she unwillingly left her pleasant thoughts knowing that this just was not the time to be thinking of Mamo-chan in such ways! Especially when her boyfriend wasn't even here, but her boyfriend's past self who always teased her was. Makoto began talking again, and Usagi attentively listened to the conversation between her past self and Makoto.  
  
"Yes," Makoto acceded, "but do we really have a choice?" She glanced around the surrounding areas again, trying to sense some sort of approaching evil force. Makoto sensed it, all right, and she immediately took Usagi's small hand firmly in hers. "Come on," she growled menacingly. "The youma's this way; I can feel it! Let's go! There's no time to waste!" And with that the two were off running at break-neck speed through the park, reaching the exit in no time.  
  
The nineteen-year-old Usagi was a bit surprised by this sudden action, and involuntarily found herself running after them, without much conscious thought into what she was doing.  
  
She flew through the park after them, silently, though, so as not to attract their attention. As soon as she reached the exit of the park, however, she realized she had lost them. She paused, not knowing which path to take; right or left. She closed her eyes and let her senses do the deciding for her. She felt the evil pulling her to the right, and that is the direction in which she let her feet take her.  
  
Usagi was running as fast as she could, hardly noticing where she was running by. Where she was running to was all up to her instincts. She ran across the street, and then through the grass of an open communal area, and then onto the conjoined sidewalk, and rounded the bend of that pathway, and-  
  
*SMACK*  
  
That would be the force of a very momentous, though short, body colliding with a not-so-momentous, though much taller, body.  
  
Usagi stumbled back, quite dizzy from the force of the impact, before falling onto her butt on the ground. The figure she had run into just towered above her, looking at her with an odd expression on his face. She couldn't make out who the person was, tough, since she was seeing three of him.  
  
"O-Odango Atama?" The familiar voice asked her.  
  
Usagi shook her head to get the image of the man back to normal. When her eyes came upon the mop of black, rich hair on his head, and his deep, blue, searching eyes, and handsome, lean, and muscular build, her mouth nearly dropped upon. "Uh-oh," she squeaked in a small voice to herself. This was not good. Out of all the people to run into in her past! She actually should have foreseen this happening, however. For her, it only figured. Only she could get into these kind of messes. Though usually it was with the help of Chibi-usa. Chibi-usa.. The thought of her future child made her blush. After all, it was her and Mamoru's future child.. This wasn't going too well..  
  
"Umm." Usagi began, though she couldn't really say anything. What was there to say? She'd be put in an insane asylum if she said 'Gee, Mamo-chan, fancy meeting you here. Yes, that's what I called you: Mamo-chan. I'm the Tskukino Usagi from the future. And guess what? We're a couple in the future! We're practically engaged! Oh, and I'm Princess Serenity, from your dreams; you're Prince Endymion. I also happen to know you're Tuxedo Mask since I'm Sailor Moon and all. I even know our future child! Wanna meet her?' Somehow, Usagi didn't think that would go over to well with Mamoru. It would probably just scare him. A lot.  
  
"You-you look.d-different," he stuttered, looking over her oddly. She did look different, too. It was as if she aged or something. Was it him, or was Usagi a few inches taller than she had been yesterday? Was he imagining things, or did she seem a little more matured and curvy, with fuller breasts? No, he couldn't have been imagining things! There was a definite difference there! Not that he wanted to know why he noticed this, though. He would rather die than say he actually looked at Odango Atama. Slowly he moved his eyes back up to meet her own crystal-clear, blue gaze. She was looking at him with an odd expression on her face. 'Oh, God,' Mamoru thought, suddenly getting very anxious in this awkward position. 'Please do not tell me she caught me looking!'  
  
'This is way too uncomfortable for me,' thought Usagi. Mamoru had been looking at her breasts! She had just caught her boyfriend's past-self staring at her. It figured, actually. She couldn't help but giggling at the thought, even though it was a bit uncalled for.  
  
Mamoru had no clue what was going on; he wasn't even sure he was comprehending things correctly. Was that actually Odango Atama, or was that a completely different person who looked spookily like her? It would make sense if it was Odango Atama, considering this person ran right into him, but this girl looked much older, and so beautiful. Almost like a princess..  
  
And now this girl was laughing. This situation was way too odd for him.  
  
"Chibi-usa, I will kill you," she wheezed through her wry laughter. "Oh," Usagi added, "and if you find yourself suddenly non-existent, it's all your fault." Now it was her turn to be looked at curiously.  
  
Suddenly, Mamoru felt a sharp, acute pain ring throughout his body. He quickly doubled over in pain, as his breathing became harsh and quick. Usagi saw this, and knew what was going on immediately. It was what she liked to deem his "Tuxedo Kamen reflexes." And that must have meant that she must have transformed.  
  
Without much thinking, or any real thinking at all, Usagi quickly threw up an arm and pointed in the direction to which she had been running to before she collided with Mamoru. "Go that way!" she shouted to him abruptly.  
  
Mamoru uncurled himself just a little, his eyes watery with pain, to give her the best look of bewilderment he could give her. If Usagi could have only gotten a yen for every strange expression Mamoru had given her that day..  
  
Usagi immediately realized what she had done. She had practically just told him that she knew he was Tuxedo Kamen. 'Smooth move, Usagi,' she thought to herself. She was beginning to feel a bit like an idiot at this point.  
  
"Um." she stammered, "um.I have to...go.somewhere. Ja ne!" With that last word, she quickly took off running in the opposite direction. The whole way Usagi hid her face in her hands. She was soooo screwed.  
  
Once she had left, Chiba Mamoru could only stare after her in amazement. Whatever had just happened was absolutely freaky. That couldn't have been Odango Atama. If it had been, someone might as well just throw him into the straight jacket now.  
  
Usagi had always been pretty, he knew that. He wasn't blind in the least. And he knew that she could be very graceful and coordinated when she put her mind to it, though that wasn't too often. But still, whoever that had been had an air of maturity around her, and a wisdom and power present about her that he never noticed Odango Atama to have. Perhaps he was off his rocker, but she almost reminded him the princess that haunted his dreams each night. The thought sent odd chills down his spine, and a strange feeling in his stomach.  
  
That feeling was quickly outdone as another wave of pain racked his body. He clutched his stomach as he grunted in pain. Not another youma attack! But what could he do? It was his duty to protect Sailor Moon, and he wouldn't trade it for the world. He rather liked being the one that the super heroine Sailor Moon looked up to for help.  
  
He held out his hand as a beautiful red rose in full bloom materialized in it. In no time after that Mamoru was cloaked in the black tuxedo, heavy cape, and tall top hat accompanied with the white mask.  
  
He immediately felt Sailor Moon calling to him, pulling him to where she was. He quickly used this "connection" to find her. And he was off, running to where he knew Sailor Moon would be with the horrible youma attacking her.  
  
He couldn't help but notice, though, that the direction he found himself running in was the same exact one as the Odango-look-alike had pointed to, telling him to "go that way." Was it possible she knew? The thought made his stomach churn. Nobody knew his secret, nobody knew his alter ego. He never told a soul. It was impossible.  
  
And yet, it was as if she knew. Just like she knew all about the youmas, all about the Dark Kingdom, and all about him. He put that feeling aside. Right now he had to protect Sailor Moon. That was his priority.  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*  
  
Usagi had been running for about three minutes and had already been well gone from Mamoru's sight when she decided to start slowing her pace down. She was in an odd position; that was for sure. She didn't even know how Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen's relationship was at this time. She remembered Tuxedo Kamen as being very mysterious all the time. But, goodness, if she was here for more than a week among her past self and past Mamoru, she wasn't sure if she would be able to keep her mouth shut! She knew she would blurt something out, she always did. And she knew that meeting up with her past self and her friends' past selves was inevitable, so why bother trying to avoid it? Besides, she knew she would need some place to sleep anyway. 1,000 yen would not hold her over for more than a day when it came to food also. She would gladly give them any future information they would want, so long as it did not have anything to do with Mamo-chan or Tuxedo Kamen..  
  
"Oh crap! Tuxedo Kamen!" she quickly called out. She twirled herself around and zoomed back to where she had come from. She wouldn't miss this youma attack for the world. If she was going to be forced to stay in the past, why not have fun seeing the events from the days she missed sorely? This wasn't so bad when she thought about it. She'd just have to avoid Mamoru, that was all..  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*  
  
And there you have it, the really long chapter 2. I know that in the last chapter I said chapter 2 would be called "Behind the Buildings" but this chapter got so long that I decided to stop where I was, so the NEXT chapter will be the one called "Behind the Buildings." I never did get to the buildings part in this one. Also, you may have noticed I raised the rating to PG-13 also. There were too many sexual innuendoes in the story, so the rating went up. And for a funnier, more interesting, and more catchy plot in future chapters, raising the rating was necessary.  
  
That is really all I have to say for now. Thanks to all who reviewed again and keep them coming!!! ^_^  
  
~*^Silver Indigo Sky^*~ 


	4. Behind the Buildings

Hi everyone!!! Long time no update, right? Well, I actually got this chapter out on a Friday, as mentioned at the end of last chapter! Just, the wrong Friday.. ^_^ Well, it's hard when you get dragged out to New York, then Delaware, then you get sick, and then your revengeful teachers pile on tons of homework and papers. And then you lose the four pages of the chapter you have written already! Here is something that might be of valuable information to you: if you want to lose something, just lend it to me for two days. Easy!  
  
Also, I want to give a HUGE "Thank You!" to everyone who reviewed my story so far! I appreciate it so, so much! It makes me happy to read all those good comments! Please keep them coming! They are awesome. And speaking of your reviews, I swear some of you guys are psychic. It's like you know my plot or something..  
  
And as for how far we are in the first season, we are at the period of the first season where the are gathering the rainbow crystals, before the identities of the Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion are known, and before there is the Silver Imperium Crystal. I actually refer to them by their Japanese names though, which would be the nijizuishou (rainbow crystal) and ginzuishou (silver imperium crystal). Please correct me if I'm wrong with these names (not uncommon) ^_^  
  
But, I did mess around with the plot line of Sailor Moon a little, as you will notice, just wanted to clear this up before this chapter got started: I am officially bringing Sailor Venus A.K.A Minako into this story. Yes, I know, she is not supposed to be around during this point in the series, but what can I say. Sailor V is my second favorite senshi, next to Sailor Moon, and she makes the story super funny with her ways of doing things. I couldn't possibly do this story and leave her out! So ignore that one incongruence. It would be so much more fun to put her in the story.  
  
And you will see, as the story unfolds that though I am going by plot line in the series, the story itself that I am writing is changing it just a little bit and putting its own quirks into the plot, so when its done, it'll change the ending of the series. Sort of. I can't really explain it. Oh well, guess you'll just have to read! ^_~  
  
At last, chapter 3! Oh, and I don't own Sailor Moon!  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
Getting With the Times  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
By Silver Indigo Sky  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
Rating: PG or PG-13. I'm wavering with the ratings here, if you can't tell!  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
Chapter 3- Behind the Buildings  
  
Usagi almost had to laugh. She had forgotten how utterly ridiculous the youmas looked. This particular one the senshi were battling looked like a cat that had been in a science lab experiment turned bad. Even though she did have the unbearable urge to snicker at the deformed "monster" in front of her, she knew she couldn't. It would attract attention she didn't want from her past self and past self's fellow senshi.  
  
Well, it wasn't like she didn't want the attention; Usagi thought it would be pretty amusing to meet up these past-selves of all her friends and tell them about all her knowledge from the future, and be like their fortune- teller. But she couldn't tell them such secrets like their true loves and future whereabouts for two reasons:  
  
She could affect the future in some way and get killed, or Pluto will find out and be very pissed at her, and she'll get killed  
  
So she thought it best just not to let them see her. The minute they made contact, Usagi knew she'd have trouble holding her tongue about, especially about her own boyfriend. Not that she wouldn't mind seeing her past self's face if she were to tell her who her boyfriend, and future-husband, would be, but as funny as it would be, it wouldn't be too bright. Usagi didn't want to go back to the future to find that she had never had a relationship with Mamoru to begin with. And she didn't want to die here in this time either, which chances are if the senshi saw her right now, they would hunt her down and kill her as a youma. So, if you can see, she really did see it fit to just stay out of the way, suppressing her giggles, and hiding in a cozy alley behind a building.  
  
Apparently Tuxedo Kamen saw it fit to stay out of the way, too. Usagi, in her suitable little nook that allowed her to see everything going on so well without having to worry about everyone being able to see her, was able to make out Tuxedo Kamen's tall, lean, black, and heavily cloaked figure high up in the depths of a tree, much overlooked by the senshi out in the battle zone. Usagi couldn't help but sprout a little, knowing smile on her lips upon noticing him. She remembered how she first thought of Tuxedo Kamen: mysterious and secretive, albeit unbelievably handsome. It suited him so well, that he should be up in a tree, determining the best time to fly down in his super-hero ways to rescue Sailor Moon. The Sailor Moon who, as we speak, was gripping on to Sailor Mars's soldiers with all her might, and trembling in fear of the scary cat-like thing behind Mars's protecting body.  
  
Mars, with her fiery, ruby eyes and matching sailor fuku, and her long black hair that was glinting a stunning purple in the sun's light, looked towards the youma with a passionate fury. Just because the priestess practiced spirit-calming things like meditation did not mean she never got pissed. And two things that made her very pissed were a whiny Usagi and an out-of-control youma. You can see why Mars was just the slightest bit irritated at this time.  
  
"You might not know who I am right now, but after I'm through with you, the name of "Sailor Mars" will be infamous to you and all who aim for the same despicable goal of destroying our world, just like you. So on behalf of our world and all of its inhabitants, I, Sailor Mars, will teach you one hell of a lesson!" She just loved it when she got to give the spicy speeches.  
  
And with those words, she pulled up her arms and to the top of her lungs, with all the energy she could muster, screamed out, "Mars Fire Ignite!" From the tips of her fingers, a long, powerful rope of fire sprang out and headed straight towards the youma.  
  
The youma looked with unflinching yellow eyes at the oncoming attack. She was truly one of the oddest formed youmas around. Her face was covered in black fur, just like a cat's. Her eyes were a piercing phosphorous yellow with tiny black slits for pupils, and her ears were shaped just like a cat's on the top of her head. Her mouth hung slightly open, enough to portray her dangerous fangs. But where her neck began, the hair stopped to remove deathly white skin up to the beginning of her chest, where the creepy black hair picked up again to her knee caps. Her arms and lower legs were of the pallor skin also. What was really creepy was the sinister pointed tail that streamed from her back-end, and her razor-sharp claws that were present on all four of her extremely large paws. But the youma was standing on two legs, not all four, which made her a little less intimidating. Not much, though. The youma, as if it were a casual, everyday thing to get assaulted with blazes of fire, spook in her eerie and haunting, though calm and nerve-racking voice.  
  
"Oh, so you're the little fire girl, are ye?" the youma snorted in amusement as Mars's eyes took on a worried look to them. "I say if you shall use fire, I shall use fire right back, then!" Before Mars's fire could even graze the youma's skin-or fur-she opened her mouth wide and in one big breath, coughed up a very large fur ball. A fur ball itself wouldn't have been too bad, actually. This one just had to be shrouded in a dangerous casing of acidic fire. That's right-acidic fire. The normal burning-hot red plasma, just with a corrosive green glow around the flames. And in no time, the youma's fire ball had cut though, and completely destroyed, Mars's fire power.  
  
"OH NO!" Mars's screamed in startled fright. Mars and all the senshi, amid terrified screams, moved away from where the ominous fur ball was moving at high-speeds towards. All except for good old Sailor Moon, that is. Back behind the buildings, Usagi was pressed against the rough brick wall in terrible fright of what could happen herself. She didn't exactly remember this youma fight, but taken into consideration that she had to have lived through this day already and was still alive herself, knew that nothing bad must happen to her, or to anyone else for that matter. Still, she grasped her precious brooch tightly; she would transform if she had to. After all, apparently her past self was doing nothing to ward off the attack. Usagi bit her lip in frustration and fear. Why was she doing nothing out there in front of the youma? At least now she knew why Rei had always made fun of her. Usagi was only thankful that in the last year of her fighting as Sailor Moon she had gotten much better at handling these type of situations. If she had still been like this.well, let's just say this world would officially be the property of Galaxia and Chaos, a thought that made Usagi physically shudder. To think that all her friends had been dead.and Mamo-chan! Oh, she could never imagine living without that sweet soul to guide her through her predicaments and tough times! Not to mention, he was so handsome, so suave, even her overprotective father liked him. So friendly, playful, a good kisser.did she mention handsome yet? And.oh, no! Here we go with Mamo-chan again! This was not the time! She could not be drooling over her perfect boyfriend if the fumbling senshi out there needed her recently-founded courage and steadfastness. No, it was certainly not the ideal time to idolize Mamoru.  
  
Back on the war front, Sailor Moon took one last final gulp, and closed her eyes tight expecting the worst to come and the growing, greenish fire ball approached her. But, when it did hit, it felt soft, warm, comforting, and solid to her.almost like a velvet clothed body. Wait a sec.since when did fire feel like that? As far as she knew, it didn't. But Tuxedo Kamen did! Could it really be her #1 hero?!  
  
She slowly opened her eyes and she felt her body go limp and her senses numb as she realized she was sure enough embraced in Tuxedo Kamen's arms strong arms, and pressed tightly to his chest, as they soared through the air, out of danger's way.  
  
Sailor Moon felt like she was going to faint. She couldn't believe she was wrapped up in Tuxedo Kamen's arms! She couldn't think much, but she was able to process that he sure did smell good. She slowly lifted her head off of his chest to be able to gaze at his face. Well, mostly at his chin, but it was good enough for her!  
  
"Oh, Tuxedo-Kamen-Sama! You saved me!" she cooed. Tuxedo Kamen did not respond at all. Sailor Moon didn't notice of course. She was too busy admiring his features, and the actual fact she was in his arms. SHE was in HIS arms! It wasn't real! Even though it has happened before..  
  
Once Tuxedo Kamen got a safe distance away from the vicinity of the fire ball, which he had pulled Sailor Moon away from just in the nick of time, he landed, gently placing the trembling super heroine on the ground, just a little bit behind where the other senshi were standing. Sailor Moon hardly noticed it as one of her dangly moon earrings, having been attached to one of the buttons on Tuxedo Kamen's white shirt, fell off and onto the ground.  
  
Tuxedo Kamen gave Sailor Moon a hard look. Sailor Moon could feel her heart speed up with the displeased look he was giving her. What had she done wrong this time? "Don't every do that again, Sailor Moon," he advised her in his rich, deep voice. "I don't want to see you get hurt when you could have avoided it so easily. What if I'm not here one time, what are you going to do? This world depends on you!" With that He turned and looked around worriedly, his deep blue eyes trying to discern where the dangerous fir ball was at. Sailor Moon voiced his very own thoughts.  
  
"WHERE IS IT?!" she suddenly screeched in panic, as if just remembering now that there had been a fire ball chasing after her. 'Where's it at? Are you all okay?" She had managed to forget about Tuxedo Kamen in the sudden panic.  
  
"I think we should be asking if you're okay, genius," Rei sneered. "But thanks for asking, yes we are all okay. We had the sense to move out of the way." Usagi gave her a saddened and almost betrayed look, her lower lip trembling from the onslaught of tears at Rei's cruel words.  
  
"Shush, Mars," Venus scolded. "She was just scared. Besides, at least she didn't make that look you did, with your eyes popping out and mouth wide open things, with you face all screwed up. I mean, you almost looked like a monster yourself out there!"  
  
"Gee, thanks," Rei said wryly.  
  
"WHERE IS IT?" Sailor Moon once again demanded.  
  
"Hold your horses, girl," Jupiter said. "It's gone. We got rid of it. Well, I got rid of it," Jupiter beamed with pride. "The world is saved, and guess what? It's all thanks to me this time! OOOOoooooh! Not you, but me! Not you, but me!" she started singing. Sailor Moon looked at Jupiter in a bit of a confused manner. Mars let out a frustrated groan.  
  
"Do you realize there's something missing here, my dear friend?" she asked in an annoyed tone. Sailor Moon averted her gaze to her, but said nothing.  
  
"The youma?" Rei probed.  
  
"Oh! The youma!" Sailor Moon repeated. "No I didn't, but now that you mention it, where did it go?" All of the senshi sweatdropped. But Jupiter didn't hesitate to answer her friend's request.  
  
"Well, you see, I did my "Jupiter Thunder Crash" thing, hoping to break up the fire ball. But, instead, something weird happened, and it actually gave the fire ball more power. But it didn't just give it more power, it actually caused the fire ball to change directions, to the direction of which my lightning thing had been going in. Stupid cat-woman who was busy gloating over her creation didn't even notice her own power turning against her, with my help, of course! And.WHAM! It hit her head on, and completely disintegrated her into nothingness!!! Can you believe it? I did it! Hardly a senshi for more than two weeks, and-oh yeah-I already defeated a youma on my own! Uh-huh, oh yeah, uh-"  
  
Venus firmly clamped a hand over Jupiter's mouth. "Please shut up," she said.  
  
Sailor Moon was confused. "But what about the nijizuishou?" she asked. "Was there any?"  
  
Mercury shrugged. "Guess there wasn't this time. This wouldn't be the first youma we recently faced that hadn't been the possessor of a nijizuishou."  
  
"Yes, you're right," Sailor Moon said, her head bent down. She quickly lifted her head up with much vigor and gave each of her friends a huge smile. "Thank you guys so much for beating that youma's butt!" she cheered. "That is so awesome Jupiter!" Jupiter glowed at the compliment. "Oh, and thank you-," she began to turn to thank her savior, Tuxedo Kamen, but her voice quickly died when she realized that he was not beside her anymore. She stared sadly with blank eyes onto the area he was last at.  
  
"So he left again," Venus's faint voice reached Sailor Moon's ears.  
  
"Yeah," she mumbled, her voice and eyes downcast.  
  
Sailor Mars slowly approached. "Look, Sailor Moon, I know we've told you this a million times, and I know you're sick of being told this, so can't you just listen for once?" she begged. Her red eyes were sincere, and they touched Usagi's very soul. She nodded her head. "Usagi," Rei continued, "believe me when I say I think he is as pleasant to the eyes as you think he is. But no matter how good he looks, we still don't know whether he is friend or enemy." Usagi rolled her eyes. Now Rei got serious, and just a little bit mad at her friend's nonchalant attitude to this matter.  
  
"Look, Sailor Moon," Mercury began, helping Mars out. "You're our leader, you're what keeps us together and performing at par. You're the reason this world has not yet collapsed under the Dark Kingdom's tricky schemes. You have dealt with countless youmas, and each time come out with a proud victory in the battles, which is why we don't want to see you get killed by someone like.Tuxedo Kamen, someone we can easily protect ourselves from." Sailor Moon looked at Ami as if she had betrayed her horribly through her words.  
  
'No, no, NO!" she suddenly screamed passionately, covering her ears tightly. "Tuxedo Kamen is not evil! He isn't!"  
  
"But you must be careful, Sailor Moon!" Venus pleaded. Sailor Moon remained still, her eyes tightly shut and ears covered, but it was obvious by the slight softening of her expression that Sailor Moon could still hear and was still listening. "Sailor Moon, believe us, we don't want him to be our enemy. It would upset us just as much as you. We are all fond of him being here to save us on the occasional battle. But even so, we know not what his goal is of obtaining the nijizuishou, and he has remained committed to keeping that information pertaining to what he is about from us. Yes, we don't have any reason to believe he is our enemy, but neither do we have reason to believe he is our ally! He has three nijizuishou already, much more than our scant one, and he seems ready to steal that one from us too. What is to keep us from saying that he might not one day hurt us? Nothing! Do you see my point, Sailor Moon? We are not trying to hurt you, just protect you, as is our jobs!" Sailor Moon stood there quiet and stunned at Venus;s powerful words.  
  
Jupiter ambled up to where the quiet and subdued girl stood. She placed an arm around her small friend's shoulder and squeezed Usagi to herself, turning her around and walking her across the deserted, afternoon street. Of course, it was probably deserted more because of the youma than the fact that it was afternoon.  
  
"Come on," Makoto soothed. The other three senshi followed behind the two. "Let's detransform and head over to the arcade. We can meet up with Andrew, a hot guy who we are sure for a fact is not evil nor our enemy, play some videos, and get some milkshakes. How does that sound? It'll be a total stress-free blast! And a needed one too!" Usagi nodded distractedly as she easily detransformed in a release of power. The other four senshi quickly followed her lead and soon they were all just normal school girls. Soon they were out of sight and well away from where the recent fight had just transpired.  
  
Tsukino Usagi from the future, still with her back straight and pressed tightly against the wall, let out a huge breath which had been saving up for a while. She had witnessed everything: Tuxedo Kamen coming out of hiding and saving herself, leaving, and the following quarrels between the scouts over him. She couldn't help but laughing at what they had spoken. Tuxedo Kamen, evil! As if! If that sweet man of hers was evil, she was Miss Japan. Which, as was a well-known fact, she would never have the coordination to be.  
  
Evil.how absurd.Tuxedo Kamen evil.Mamo-chan evil.impossible. Unless, of course, he was under the influence of either Metallia or Chaos, then not-so- impossible. But even so, her Maamo-chan was the least evil person in the world! He was kind, caring, chivalrous, personable.she was obsessing again, wasn't she? This was not good. At this rate, she would miss him terribly in not even an hour more. Did she just feel a pang of missing him? Probably..  
  
She crawled out from behind the bushes and looked around the empty surrounding area and took in a deep breath. What would she possibly do now? No one to talk to, no place to go without worry of being seen by someone who was in someway affiliated with her past self. This sucked.  
  
But at that second, her mind was quickly taken off of her horrible predicament, which, again, she would lay all blame to Chibi-usa, by a high- pitched, loud, and ear-shattering scream. It reverberated throughout the placid sky, almost knocking Usagi down. Yet something about the scream sounded familiar.  
  
Usagi turned around to see the person who was the source of the scream, and when her eyes came upon the person whom had shouted-one blond, odangoed, short, and blue-eyed individual-she herself let out a deafening scream as well, one that was identical to the one that the girl in front of her had produced. And, following that, both Usagi and her past self screamed together, startled and frightened, at the same time.  
  
~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^  
  
That was, again, a long chapter. Sorry for all who don't like the long chapter things, but, believe me, now that I'm done with the whole setting- up the story descriptive thing and finally onto the plot part, they'll get shorter. Seriously! And for all who haven't guessed it yet, I LOVE my reviews, so please review! Love to know what you think about it so far! And, for those who are unsure, "nijizuishou" means "rainbow crystal." Oh, look! I finished this and it's only midnight! ^_^;  
  
~*^Silver Indigo Sky^*~ 


	5. The Plan

Hello to all my dear, dear readers!!! I'm back again with this chapter, The Plan, and it's actually less than 3,000 words, so long as you don't include the author's notes! ;  
  
Thank you so, SO, SOOOO much for reviewing! I can't tell you how much it means, and how happy it makes me!!! And I am up to 66 already! I am soooo psyched. But anyway, before I scare you.I am so sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out! Well, actually, not as long as last chapter, but I have still not been holding steady to my vows in chapter 2. Once a week.I think I bit off a little more than I can chew. I feel bad.but I think I'm abandoning those deadlines for me. My schedule is so fickle sometimes, especially with mad geometry teachers and even wackier history teachers. I mean, I gave my teacher the nickname of Curly Blond Afro Dude, he's so wack! And let me tell you does it ever look misplaced!!!!! It's really quite funny when you first see him!!  
  
Also.I am so sorry if these chapters are riddled with grammar and spelling errors. I am too damn lazy to go back and revise, and I feel bad. Just looking at a random paragraph from chapter two, I noticed some heinous spelling errors that made me myself want to cringe. I, as much as anyone else, do not like badly written stories, so I am so sorry if it's painful or hard to read. It would be nice if you would just skip over the mistakes for now, and if it is a mangled word, replace it with what you know it should be. Thanks so much again. I suppose I'll eventually revise it.put my conscious to rest.  
  
Well..okay.here's the chapter.. Oh, and I don't own Sailor Moon! That's right, I don't own SM! Surprise, surprise.  
  
Getting With the Times  
  
By Silver Indigo Sky  
  
Rating: PG/PG-13  
  
Chapter 4- The Plan  
  
Mizuno Ami, Hino Rei, Kino Makoto, Aino Minako, Chiba Mamoru, Chibi-usa, Diana, Luna, Artemis, and the welcomed guest Meiou Setsuna all sat around together in a cozy circle on the bare wood floor of the Cherry Hill Temple, the usual meeting place for any and all sailor-related problems. And birthday parties too.  
  
Setsuna sat on the ground with her legs kneeled looking very amused at the whole situation. "Out of the many, many years I have had my job as guardian of the time gate, I have never, ever seen anything like this happen," she said. Her red eyes glinted with amusement. She turned to Chibi-usa. "Explain to me again how you actually managed to send Usagi-chan into the vast time portal, without keeping physical contact with her to create an even flow of power between you two."  
  
Chibi-usa looked glumly at the floor. "I told you, I don't know," she mumbled quietly. "It just happened. I never meant it to happen like that, but it did. I meant to go to the past, just me, to lose Usagi, because she had been chasing me and stuff, you know? We were playing a game, kind of. So I took out my time key like I usually did when I wanted to access the portal, began releasing its power, and I don't know what happened next. I was having a good time, laughing, and all of a sudden it got really bright and it like exploded! And it scared me! I got flown into the past, I know it. I mean, there were these forests, and...and...these ugly looking green things that towered up to the sky! They made these scary sounds! They were so icky! And monstrous! I was so scared that without even realizing it, I ran for like a hundred miles!" Ami giggled silently at that last comment. Not in a rude way, but hearing little kids say such ludicrous things always made her giggle to herself.. Chibi-usa continued unknowingly. "And then I held out my time key and with all the energy I could muster sent me right back here! It was hard, actually, and when I went back it was sorta just as bright as it was coming here, without the whole explosion thing." Chibi-usa took in a huge breath after her fiery explanation. "But I still don't know what those scary huge things were! Not youma in a different time period, right?" With that, everyone in the group exchanged worried glances with each other. The last thing they wanted was to have a whole new enemy to deal with.  
  
Minako laughed nervously, wanting to face having no boyfriend for the next five years rather than battling with new creatons. Especially if they were from a different time period! But hadn't Usagi triumphed over chaos not too long ago? "Geeze...isn't that improbable though? Maybe it was...like...I don't know...a dinosaur?" Minako mused.  
  
"YES!" Ami shrieked, suddenly very excited. "A dinosaur! It must be! Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! Chibi-usa, tell me what it was like! CHIBI-USA, OH oh OH oh OH oh O-oomph!" Rei had firmly placed her hand over Ami's mouth.  
  
"Ami, shut it," she bluntly stated. "We have no interest in dinosaurs, if that is what Chibi-usa saw. We should be concentrated on how Chibi-usa managed to fling herself into Jurassic Park, and where Usagi is. I just hope she isn't buzzard food by now." Rei's face held a ghastly gloom over it, but Ami didn't seem to notice, for she slapped Rei's hand away and continued right on.  
  
"But this could be a major breakthrough in science! Just picture it for a second: finally some unquestionable, solid information on the extinct species! We could be known world-over in science! We could uncover so much information on the history of earth!" Ami began jumping up and down in her frenzied state. The others sweatdropped.  
  
"Umm...Ami?" Minako began hesitantly. Ami looked up. "What if we don't really want to be famous in science?"  
  
"Not want to be famous in science?! Are you insane?!" Minako gave Ami a sheepish look.  
  
"I want to be a famous chef," Makoto cut in. Her brown eyes were glassy, and her fists were balled under her chin. She sighed contentedly.  
  
"Yeah, well I want to be a priestess someday, but you don't see me obsessing about it!" Rei retorted sharply, her anger rising.  
  
"Actually, Rei, you do. Like, for instance, yesterday, when you were explaining to all of us about your charms for luck. You kept on telling us how they worked and other boring stuff like that, and you always kept on coming back to the point of only you knowing it, 'cause it's special knowledge strictly for priestesses," Minako pointed out. Rei was seething, and her temper quickly got the better of her.  
  
"Well at least I'm not some slut, always walking around in some skimpy little outfit flirting with the boys. You, on the other hand, are a horrid, horrible seductress. Oh, you know you are! You know it!" the violet-eyed girl hissed dangerously, while stealthily closing up the distance between her and Minako, giving her an icy look. Minako wasn't about to give up, though. She would not tolerate being called such things.  
  
She jumped to her feet in a swift move, shooting Rei an equally threatening look. However, hers quickly transformed into a smirk. "Oh, Rei, Rei, Rei....," she sighed. "If only you knew the kind of things I saw you doing with Yuuichirou!" Minako then turned away from Rei and sauntered over to her backpack, drawing out of it a small white envelope. She slyly opened it up and gave the contents a quick glance over. She turned back around to face Rei and the others, looking all very inquisitive. All except for Chibi- usa, anyway, who was too busy fuming silently at Setsuna's feeble attempts to catch one of her thick pink ponytails to take her away into the next room.  
  
"Look, Chibi-usa," Setsuna calmly rationalized. "You shouldn't be here. This is inappropriate!" Chibi-usa just dodged another one of Setsuna's lunges, taking a few seconds afterwards to gloat over her cunning ways, during which Setsuna made grabbed the little girl's collar successfully, dragging her out into another part of the temple, completely unnoticed by the others in the room.  
  
Minako began to forcefully wave the white envelope high, all the while ambling on over to Rei. When the blond girl got close enough to her, she shoved the envelope in her baffled face.  
  
"You see this," Minako began in an ominous whisper. "This is a whole entire stack of pictures, all of you and Yuuichirou doing the.achem...dirty.... So if you don't mind...." Rei looked up into Minako's sinister face with a horrified, disbelieving expression pasted on.  
  
"You...no...you...how could you?" she stuttered. The other girls in the room were all crowded around them waiting to see what would happen. Or, rather, waiting to get a hand on those pictures in the envelope. Minako giggled a bit, beginning to wave the envelope a bit again. Rei gained her composure, though, and quickly snatched the envelope out of Minako's hand, gloating at her triumph. That wicked blond wouldn't ruin her pride and reputation this time. But the odd thing was, Minako was still giggling, laughing in fact. Rei could only give the girl a questioning glance, grasping onto the envelope protectively that could easily break her dignity. Setsuna came back into the room to catch the last part of it.  
  
"Oh, Kami-sama," she breathed. Even so, she decided not to intervene. These confrontations were usually quite amusing, actually, and she needed her humor for the day.  
  
Minako fell onto the floor in a fit of hysteria. Rei quizzically looked from Minako to the envelope, and back to Minako again, who began to speak.  
  
"Those.those.," she laughed a little bit more, in a pained position on the floor, doubled over and clutching her stomach. She took a deep breath and began again. "Those...are...," she giggled a bit, "they're just...," she followed with a chuckle, "pictures of...," and she ended whatever thought she could manage to get out in hysterical laughter.  
  
Rei looked down on the now crumpled envelope in her hand. With one last look at Minako, she began to open it hesitantly, not quite sure she wanted to see its contents, whether of her or not. The minute her deep purple eye's focused in on the photos that were contained in the envelope, her stricken expression was positively priceless. In a second, her expression became an even better one of pure fury. You could almost see the flames shooting out of her eyes and ears.  
  
"LUNA AND ARTEMIS!" she roared. "THEY'RE GODDAMNED PICTURES OF LUNA AND ARTEMIS!" Rei shook out the pictures from the packet so that they all fell to the floor. "ALL OF THEM, LUNA AND ARTEMIS!" she screeched, pointing to the piles and piles of pictures of the two lovey-dovey cats. She shot a dangerous glance at Minako. "ARE YOU SICK OR SOMETHING?" Minako was floundering on the ground in uncontrollable waves of laughter; Rei was pounding on the ground, kicking at the pictures, in uncontrollable waves of pure rage. Ami, Lita, and Setsuna had crowded around the piles of pictures now flung around the room, in grave disappointment, trying to communicate to either one of the two inattentive girls. One could say that the place was in utter chaos, and it would still be an understatement. Luna and Artemis had managed to escape outside from an open window realizing that they did not want to die at the hand of a flying pillow, or mirror, or whatever other object Rei might get her hands on.  
  
In fact, the only one who wasn't caught up in the whole incident was good old Mamo-chan, the always composed one he is. But one could say he was just a little bit ticked off by the whole thing, and by the way the girls got so easily distracted. Here he was; his girlfriend, his one and only love, and the future queen of earth, gone! Nobody had any inkling as to how she was doing, where she was, or even what time period she was in! He didn't want his future wife's life to get endangered by dinosaurs! He hardly saw how pictures of Yuuichirou...or Luna and Artemis...or whatever the hell they were to his wonderful blond angel! They didn't--at all! So even if the girls were going to waste precious time over such insignificant things, he was not going to! And with that in mind, he jumped up from his place on the floor where he had remained the whole time, and walked over to the door of the temple. He had opened it when he turned back around to the oblivious girls, and over his shoulder shouted, "Fine, maybe you don't want to help Usako out. Maybe you don't want to straighten this situation out. Hell, maybe you even wanted to instigate it! I don't know! But what I do know is that all of you are being absolutely immature. For such a dangerous predicament, you sure aren't taking it to heart. This could mean the future of the earth as we know it! By the way you are so unable to keep your thoughts in track, one would think you were goldfish! Even if you're not helping--don't want to help--I know I will help Usako. I'll save her alone, if I have to! I'll die for her even!" And with that, Mamoru stormed out of the room. Each and every one of the girls were startled, and very shaken up by his unnerving and powerful words.  
  
"Oh no...what have we done!" Ami brooded. Rei, Minako, and Lita, on the other hand, reacted quickly, running right out of the door in an attempt to catch up with him, screaming "Mamoru-san!" all the way.  
  
"What has just happened? I have a very bad feeling about this." Ami said gloomily to the only other occupant left, Setsuna." Setsuna gave her a slight smile.  
  
"Don't worry," she replied. "I have a plan. One I think will work very, very well."  
  
Ami looked up at her. "Really?"  
  
"Yeah. I was forming it earlier. Working it all out. It's pretty simple and I believe it will work perfectly. I guess I should have told you guys sooner, but I got caught up in how this whole thing happened to begin with." Ami just stared blankly at her, waiting for an explanation. "And, you know, I have some great news!" Setsuna said, with a proud smile on her face."  
  
"What's that? You already know where Usagi-chan is?"  
  
"Well, no, but good all the same. It's about Chibi-usa. Her power's growing. I'm very pleased of her!"  
  
"What do you mean?" Ami asked.  
  
"The whole thing, I know how it happened; how Usagi got sent back in time with Chibi-usa, and how Chibi-usa went back so far. It's that her power is growing; she's getting stronger. She is developing, maturing, becoming the lady she always dreamed of being! It all makes sense! Her huge power bursts are crystal clear right now. As she gets extremely happy or sad, her strong emotions feed her growing, needy powers, making her incomprehensibly strong!"  
  
"Wow," Ami said simply. Then she smiled. "That's great! She's finally growing up!" Setsuna nodded.  
  
"Yes, I suppose all that training taught her well! I'm so proud! I'm sure her mom's so proud at how strong she is becoming." Her eyes became glazed over, looking out the window into the vast distance of the blue sky. "I suppose she won't want us calling her "Small Lady" for much longer...." Setsuna stood there for a while, still and quiet.  
  
Ami tapped her on the shoulder after a bit, awakening her from her deep thoughts. "So...," Ami began, "what's the plan to get Usagi-chan back anyway?"  
  
"Ooh! Of course!" Setsuna declared. "Anyway, what I was planning was to take Rei-chan, Minako-chan, and Mamoru-san back with me into the time portal. I'm really sorry, Ami-chan, that I can't take you, but I hope you won't mind. See I figured taking all five of you would be too much, so I had to leave you and Makoto-chan here. That way I only need enough power to take three people through the gates of time with me."  
  
Ami nodded in understanding, but still had a question. "Why those three?"  
  
"Well...Mamoru-san naturally because he is the one whose soul mate is Usagi- chan. He could use his love and his connection to her to find her no matter where he is. Through the expansive love he holds for her alone, he could detect her. Then I'm taking Minako-chan because she is the Sailor of Love. If Mamoru-san can't readily find her, then Minako-chan can use her powers to find where Usagi's love energy is coming from and connect it Mamoru's and pull them together from there. Do you follow?" Ami nodded. "So Minako- chan would be used sort of as a back-up, or to help guide Mamoru to Usagi. And then as for Rei-chan.well it never hurts to have a priestess with an uncanny ability of knowing what people are thinking, where their hearts are going, and also being able to read signs from things like eyes and palms and etc." Ami laughed.  
  
"No, I guess it doesn't."  
  
"Yes. And then I would take those three into the vast time portal with me, let them use their powers in what ever way they wish to locate where Usagi- chan would be, and then I would lead the way and set them in that point in time, and let them get her back through whatever way possible, and that, I'll tell you, should be easy."  
  
"Yes," Ami agreed. "That plan is good indeed. Simple, yet brilliant. Completely feasible. No quirks I can tell whatsoever."  
  
"No, actually, there is one quirk in it; one major flaw," Setsuna disagreed.  
  
"What? Where?"  
  
"Well, Rei-chan and Minako-chan, of course! After today, I might have to hog-tie them down to get them to cooperate together!"  
  
"I see your point!" Ami laughed. "But don't worry. Knowing how Mamoru-san is feeling right now, I think they better cooperate, just so that they could live another day without the fear of Mamoru tearing them limb from limb." They both chuckled.  
  
Sure, Makoto, Rei, Minako, and Mamoru were probably out there brawling due to the tense situation as they lightly laughed After all, their minds were still in a dark pit with no hope of ever seeing Usagi again-the leader and mediator of the group, who could probably be termed as a type of glue for the group. But Ami and Setsuna saw light in the situation: they had a plan. However, as they were to be proved, scheming and doing are two totally different things.  
  
This chapter is actually pretty weird, all things considered. But hey, I had to throw in some sort of quirk in how the girls are going to work together when retrieving poor lost Usagi. But I do feel bad for not picking up with the cliffhanger from the previous chapter. I am sooo sorry!!!!!!!!!! Please don't kill me! I promise I'll pick up with it in chapter 5! And just think, a whole chapter with nothing but Usagi and Usagi and Mamoru and major hilarious confusion! This will be good.. So I will see you around for the next one. In the meantime, please review! Please! The more reviews, the more motivated I am, and the sooner the next chapter will be out!  
  
Silver Indigo Sky 


	6. Blame it on the Earring

OH MY GOSH!! OH MY GOSH!! OH MY GOSH!!!  
  
LOOK WHO ACTUALLY FINALLY UPDATED THEIR LONG-OVERDUE FIC!!!  
  
IT'S AMAZING!!! After all, it's only been half-a-year....  
  
I rally am sorry I took so long in getting this chapter out. As I said in all caps multiple times in my bio, there is no excuse for it!! And I wonder how many readers I lost in the process, but hey, it's my fault so I deserve to suffer whatever consequences my laziness might entail. But if it's any comfort I PROMISE I will NEVER wait that long to update again!! Honestly!  
  
Anyway, I would have probably had it out sooner, because I was almost done with this chapter back in February, when lo-and-behold, I--the complete failure when it comes to anything technological (I feel for you, Usagi, really I do...)--manage to somehow completely annihilate my hard drive. That's right--I actually managed to ruin my hard drive. IT WAS FUN, let me tell you! I had to wait a week for a new hard drive to be sent to me because the other had electrical failure or something, and then it was six hours on the phone with the computer company installing the darn thing. It was a thrill a minute!  
  
Also, it looks like my story needs some serious editing...oh joy! I'll get to it eventually, probably after I finish the story, so until then would you mind just having to read through weird typos and sentences with some pretty odd grammar structure? I hope it's not a problem. Also I have been noticing weird cases where all of my dashes were turned into single hyphens, and a string of three periods were turned into just on (this: . instead of: ...) making my sentences look very sloppy. It took me awhile, but finally I realized it was due to Microsoft Word's wonderfully annoying autocorrect! So I got that problem under wraps for this chapter though I didn't bother to go back and correct the other chapters since I don't even have the word files to them anymore. .;  
  
Okay, enough with my ramblings, time to read!!!

* * *

Getting With the Times  
  
By Silver Indigo Sky  
  
Rating: PG/PG-13

* * *

Chapter 5- Blame it on the Earring

_BACK IN THE PAST_:

"I--I--who _are_ you?!" was all the young Usagi could manage to sputter out in the sudden shock and fright of seeing someone who looked all too much like her. What appeared to be her clone (plus a few inches in extra height) stood in front of her silently, crystal blue eyes as wide as hers. After a few elongated seconds, Usagi decided it was time for another attempt at prying information from the apparent replica. "Hi, I'm Usagi...Tsukino Usagi. I guess you got your...uh...hairdo from me...well, your everything from me, so mind if you tell me your name?" Usagi could almost hear the crickets that followed that question. Again, she asked a question: "Do you go to school around here?" No such luck. Obviously her clone was a mute one.  
  
"USAGI!" Makoto exclaimed. "Wait...two Usagi's? That's not right...." She ran up to Usagi. As she ran her expression changed from that of fright to that of relief, but confusion and almost humor. She was followed by three worried fourteen-year-olds. One had short but soft blue hair with rich blue eyes; another had streaming blonde hair with a glowing tan; the last had long black hair and fiery purple eyes.  
  
"We heard you sreaming," Ami interjected. She took a look at the sight in front of her, not one that you'd see everyday. "Is this what it was about? Goodness, Usagi! We thought you were facing some youm...err, some ax murderer or something!"  
  
Usagi turned to look at her friends. "I'm sorry, but she scared me! I mean, here I was just innocently coming to look for my moon earring which got knocked out during the fight...I mean, not fight--there was no fight...," she quickly turned to give her look-a-like an odd smile, "and here was this person who looked exactly like me! I got scared! Do you blame me?"  
  
Rei, coming up to stand beside Ami, snorted. "Usagi, you can be SUCH a baby at times! You should never scream like that unless you're in some terrible emergency!" she shook her pointer finger at Usagi for extra emphasis. "You can be so brain-dead sometimes. I mean, you probably scared this woman half- to-death, when I doubt she did anything more than merely resemble you."  
  
"RESEMBLE me?!" Usagi suddenly screeched. "RESEMBLE me?! No offense or anything, but this is _way_ more than your average, everyday _resemblance_." She grabbed Rei by the arm in a circulation-cutting grip and wheeled her around so that she was face-on with the clone.  
  
Rei stood there observing the pale woman for a minute or two. "I see what you mean...," she quietly admitted.  
  
Now it was Minako's turn to talk. Unlike Usagi she didn't beat around the bush from the obvious when she came up to question her best friend's imposter.  
  
"Wow, you do look a lot like our friend, Usagi, here!" her voice was all amazement. "Just out of curiosity, did you do that purposely? What's your name? Where do you come from? I wish someone would dress like me! Then, I would know I was finally being admired for the perfect teen idol I am...," Minako's voice trailed off as she stared into the sky with wide, dreamy eyes. It didn't take long for her to return to the present (and her actual life), and she continued what she was saying to the woman who now looked all too amused. "Still, I guess I can see where Usagi was coming from before, because it can be a little creepy when someone dresses like someone else to your degree--eh, no offense or anything--so tell us something about yourself so that, you know, we...lose our creepiness. Or however you say it. I'm sure you know what I mean!" She smiled brightly having finished what she thought to be quite a respectable and intelligent opening.  
  
The odangoed woman stood there silent before opening her mouth in a way that looked like she was about to talk before Minako interjected again.  
  
"Oh, I'm Minako by the way," she smiled once more and held out her hand. The woman gave her a strange look before meeting Minako's hand with her own. Minako couldn't decipher the expression. It looked almost cautious, yet amused, as if she has some great inside joke.  
  
"Yeah, I know," the heretofore unspeaking woman finally said. "Aino Minako." She took a step back as if to look over the individual girls. "You're great at volleyball and picking out clothes, as well as guys. You moved here from London not too long ago, and you already are a teen idol of sorts, Sailor V." It was the woman's turn to smile, and she savored all of the attention that was being focused on her. She realized then that this had the potential to become a very fun experience. All she had to do was play up her knowledge of her own present time, and she could astound thousands! Maybe she could make money by being a fortune teller.... Still, she had never had such rapt attention placed on her before, unless it was in a life-or-death-of-the-whole-world situation. She moved so that she was now facing the dumbfounded black-haired teenager. "And you're Hino Rei," she said pointing to her. "You're a priestess. You're also a very loyal friend, but over the years you have also proven yourself to have somewhat of an unpleasant temper at times." Rei stood there even more shocked than she had been before, and none of the girls could seem to get a grip on what the woman meant by "over the years." Ami herself, though she was usually on top of everything, seemed utterly bewildered. How would this woman know if Rei was a loyal friend or not? It wasn't like she WAS Usagi!  
  
In turn, the woman faced each and every one of the girls and gave them their name and some facts about them. "You're Kino Makoto, and you are madly in love with "cute" foods and home decorations. And Motoki, the owner of the arcade, of course...." she said to the rather frightened brunette. "Mizuno Ami, the smartest girl in the class and one of the best swimmers out there," she bowed her head gently to the surprised blue-haired girl. She moved on to the final girl. "And, of course, Tsukino Usagi...." All the girls waited on edge to see what she was going to say about her. They were all expecting the spookiest.  
  
To the girls' astonishment, she didn't whip out all sorts of eerie facts about their friend; she merely bent her head down and quietly laughed in a secretive way. But their surprise didn't last long because about the time that they had given each other freaked out looks (after all, what if the woman was some insane stalker just preparing to murder them and laughing over it) she turned to face them again. She began to barrage them with all sorts of facts about Usagi without even taking a breath.  
  
"Tsukino Usagi, your birthday is June 30. Your dad's name is Kenji; your mom is Ikuko. While your mom is really cool with most of what you do, your dad is super overprotective! You love going to the Crown arcade, especially to see Motoki and drool over him--which is really disgusting!--and to play the Sailor V game, right teen idol?" she glanced over at Minako with a friendly and light-hearted smile. "You also have a crush on Tuxedo Kamen. However, you have a talking cat named Luna who doesn't trust him much. Actually, she doesn't trust him at all, and better than that, she has a propensity to nag, but you know you have to learn to live with her anyway because there is never going to be a way to get rid of her. She is forever and always your guide--she is the sailor scouts' guardian after all, and you're their leader, Sailor Moon..." She finished quietly as her lungs' supply of oxygen was seriously depleted. It took more energy than she realized to spit out a handful of facts about herself to herself, even if it had been at rapid-fire pace. Luckily the spooked out teenagers' silence allowed her enough time to catch her breath before she began to talk again, but this time to do the inevitable and explain who she was and why she was there.  
  
Perhaps it wasn't the brightest move she could do, and it was always possible that some terrible, future-devastating consequences might arise from her actions, but she didn't care. She couldn't think of any relatively good way out of this, and even if she did come up with a means of escape, who's to say she wouldn't run into them again? Besides, if Mamochan and the others took their time in finding her (and lord help those poor souls if they did), she might be stuck here for a night! She didn't want to think what it would be like if she was stuck in this strange year for longer than that.... Still, if she would have to spend the night in good old 1992, she'd have to fish for some kind of shelter shelter. Besides, right now her priority was getting on their friendly side so she could get them to give her some food (being placed into another time period really burns a lot of calories after all!). And if they truly trusted her, she could picture all of the money she could get rolling in from her previously mentioned fortune telling idea!  
  
So now was the time of truth.  
  
"I'm...this is going to be hard for you guys to believe, and you guys probably won't understand--I hardly understand how this situation I'm in came to be!--but in all honesty--and you guys have to believe me--and even if you don't, it's okay because I have an infinite amount of ways to prove it--well, I'm Tsukino Usagi. I'm Tsukino Usagi of the future." She drew an easy breath in as she finished the sentence. The hard part was over.  
  
All of a sudden, Usagi began to feel as if she was getting TOO much attention. It was fun when the all stared with amazement at her (for the first time she didn't feel completely clueless!), but now they were just flat-out gawking. It was very discomforting.  
  
Usagi bit her lip and gave a little awkward smile as they continued to stare at her in a mix of disbelief and shock. She stood there looking around uncomfortably as the seconds ticked on until finally she couldn't take it anymore.  
  
"Look, maybe I should have eased into it a little more! I'll grant it, it's an unusual situation that doesn't happen everyday, and I can bet that you guys didn't even know time travel was possible! I can bet even more that you certainly weren't expecting to see someone from the future just randomly show up, but someone did! That someone is me! I'm...Usagi's future self, from the year 1997." She inhaled deeply before looking herself straight in the eyes. And she proceeded to formally greet herself:  
  
"Hi, Usagi. I'm you; you're me. There's no difference between us but years. We're the same person, just you must be fourteen, and I'm nineteen." She smiled at herself, and her younger version bit her lip and gave her a befuddled, unsure smile.  
  
Without either Usagi knowing it, Ami had quietly taken out her nifty computer scanner and had thoroughly scanned each girl, showing the results to Luna who took extra pains not to leave any detail out in her examination.  
  
With Luna's consent, Ami spoke up. "Prove it, 'Tsukino Usagi', prove that you're our friend's future self."  
  
"Well, I did," was Usgai's response. "You guys were all my friends then and you still are where I come from, and I told you all facts about yourself. Doesn't that make you believe me? I know who you are, and very well--you're my best friends."  
  
"Yeah, sure, and that may be, but how do we know you just didn't look us up and stalk us? We want physical proof," Ami said sternly. "We won't believe you any other way."  
  
The elder Usagi just stared at her. "What, do you want us both to strip so that you can take note of where all our beauty marks are located and stuff?" she asked sincerely.  
  
"No!" the younger Usagi chimed in.  
  
Ami shrugged in response. "We don't care what kind of physical proof you show us--we just want some to fully believe you."  
  
Usagi looked at her in disbelief. "Oh come on! If you're going to do this to me, which I really don't see the need for, at least give me something that's physical to prove to you!" she whined.  
  
"It's YOU again!" an astonished voice called out in the distance. "Wait...wait...," the astonishment quickly became confusion. All six faces (seven if you count Luna) turned to face a rather bemused Mamoru walking up to them.  
  
"Mamoru-san!" Rei cooed happily, sauntering closer to him. "I haven't seen you all of today! How are you?"  
  
"Um, I'm good," he replied half-heartedly, not even bothering to look at the girl. Instead he gaped at the girl whom he had seen in the street earlier, the one he could have sworn was Usagi, but yet had seemed much altered from the Usagi he knew. Except for now he knew she couldn't possibly be Usagi because Usagi was standing right beside her!  
  
At least he was able to take some relief from the fact that it hadn't been Odango Atama that he had openly stared at earlier. Still, he never "checked out" any girls like that, and the fact that the one he would suddenly be compelled to do that for just happened to be a clone of Usagi did not give him all that much reassurance. 'I am losing it' he thought. If he should suddenly have the hots for Usagi, something would not be right in the world. Still, looking at the woman who looked exactly like Usagi, just a Usagi that seemed to be his age, he couldn't stop his subconscious from interjecting loathsome thoughts that Mamoru just didn't need right now, like how beautiful she was. And--damn his subconscious,--but he could swear it was focusing more on his Odango Atama rather than the more appropriately aged woman next to her. He was starting to think an appointment with a psychologist in the near future would be in order.  
  
To Mamoru's great disgust, he could feel his face heat up slightly, and he could only guess how flushed he was becoming. 'What is happening to me?' he thought to himself. 'Why the hell is this happening? I'm blushing?! I haven't blushed since I was in seventh grade! And over Odango Atama? No way, can't be! Motoki will have a field day with this! It has to be because of the girl next to her. That's right! I have all the right to blush! She caught me doing something very embarrassing this morning! Normal people would blush in my circumstance!' Mamoru comforted himself in this way and managed to get his mind back to functioning mode and away from his wayward, and startlingly pleasing, thoughts about how wonderful it would be if his Odango Atama would grow up to look so gorgeous.  
  
He decided it would be best to ask a question of the strange new woman, any question, just to break the tension. After all, he had to live up to his reputation of being "Mr. Cool and Collected," the one who always played the part of the suave young man. Once he came up with that question, he opened his mouth to voice it.  
  
"So," he began, but for some weird reason he felt a compulsion to start over again. "So...," and that was as far as his mind would remember the question. Damn his mind! Why was his body giving him such trouble today? It's not like he did anything particularly abusive to it. Well, he had flown on top of buildings hardly even fifteen minutes ago to get to a fine resting point on top of a rather tall tree. But he had come to accept that his body was made to do those kinds of feats by this point in time! Freakish? Oh, yea, he knew he was pretty dang freakish, but at least he didn't feel so bad because he always knew the sailor senshi were there to be outcasts with him in a society that was made mostly of normal, everyday human beings. And not a whole bunch of superheroes who throw roses and fly around in tuxedoes, unlike him. Sometimes it was tough being Tuxedo Kamen....  
  
"HEL-LOO, Earth to Mamoru-baka!" his subconscious managed to pick up the voice of Odango Atama. The minute he heard it he snapped back from his thoughts only to realize he was staring numbly at the ground. Geez, he realized he had gone off on another little mind-tangent again, but he hadn't realized he had completely spaced out! He turned his dark blue eyes to face her and going by his natural instinct of when-in-doubt-smile, he flashed her one of his infamous crooked grins.  
  
"You know what, Mamoru-baka, it's funny that you should call me spacey when you just stop talking after a 'so' and look down at the ground practically drooling!" her teasing comment was rewarded by a giggle from Minako and Makoto in the background, a grunt from Rei, and a sheepish look from Mamoru.  
  
"At least he doesn't do it fifty times a day like some people I know," Rei shot an accusing glance Usagi's way.  
  
This time Usagi the elder-spoke-up in response to Rei's insult. "_Hey_! That is sooo not fair! You might want to know that I _totally_ get over it! In fact, I'm probably the most mature out of all of us!" she huffed. She stuck her nose in the air in an indignant manner--a gesture she was positive she picked up the minute she met Rei. Everyone turned their glances to her, and she blushed. "Well, I do."  
  
Mamoru for his part didn't know what to think. So he stood their expressionlessly before finally finding the right question to ask: "who are you?"  
  
Everybody just stood there silent as the question pressed heavily down on the group.  
  
Luna turned to face Ami; Ami turned to face Luna. Her sailor senshi scanner had proclaimed they were one in the same, and now all of their senses did too. The cat and the smart blue-haired girl both exchanged smiles as Ami confidently answered the question. "Oh, she's Tsukino Usagi, all right...she is definitely the future Tsukino Usagi...."  
  
Minako moved around to stand beside the now-certain future Usagi. She looked at her all-smiles. "So, what's it like to be nineteen?" As the question rolled off of her tongue, she perked up even more. "Nineteen! You're nineteen! Do you go to nightclubs? Have you gone to nightclubs? Do you make a lot of money? Are you in college? Do you have a boyfriend? OOH, DO YOU, DO YOU?"  
  
Usagi sweatdropped. 'Never mind,' she thought to herself, 'the hard part is still to come...great....'  
  
And poor Mamo could do nothing but stand there like a petrified stone in his overwhelming state of shock. Whatever feeling of reassurance he had felt before had all but left him. He would need a lot of time to let this one settle in....

* * *

I soooo cannot wait till the next chappie!! The next one will be nothing but Usa/Usa/Mamo fun! YAAAYY! The good part of the story is finally beginning!!!!

But first, a few questions to everyone. PLEASE READ!!!!:  
  
I've been getting a lot of "your story is confusing" reviews. Believe me I do not want this story to be confusing! I want it to be an easy read that flows well and has a smooth plot. I will definitely clear up or get rid of any of the confusing parts, or e-mail you personally with an explanation to what's confusing you, but I can't if I don't know what's confusing in the story. So, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE: IF YOU FEEL EVEN SLIGHTLY CONFUSED, TELL ME WHAT'S THE CAUSE OF IT. It's easy, just plop it in my review.

My e-mail is easy. It's SilverIndigoSky (at aol dot com)

This one is another important one, and even better, it's simple! I REQUEST THAT PEOPLE REVIEW MY FANFICTION! See, getting reviews makes Silver Indigo Sky happy, and if she gets past the 100-review mark with this chappie, she will post the next chappie next week!  
  
.....well.....who's she kidding....she'll post it next week anyway (after  
  
all, the guilt from procrastinating so much last time got to her) but  
  
still, reviews would be nice....  
  
Oh yea, and the new chappie of Love Will Turn you Around will be out by  
  
Friday!  
  
Remind me NEVER to write two chapter-stories again at once....  
  
Silver Indigo Sky


	7. The Plan in Action

Yay! And this chapter is out right on time! I feel so proud!  
  
Okay, to begin with, I have some notes that I think you all should read in my bio related to the story. I have been getting questions that I think I should just clear up before I upset anybody!  
  
Also, very importantly, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU A MILLION TIMES OVER, to all who reviewed my fic! THANK YOU!! You guys are what make it worth writing times a million!  
  
And even if you just read my fic and didn't review, THANK YOU ALSO! Well, so long as you at least sort of liked my fic! ;)  
  
Seriously, though, some of your reviews were just SO SWEET!! And also, some of your suggestions were JUST what I needed! If you find your ideas in my fic....just know I thank you TONS!! Lol. Actually, I'll list your name in this little beginning part in the chapter in which I utilize your idea because I just have to give you credit for it.  
  
And also thank you for your criticisms, because a lot are really helpful to me so I know what in my writing needs improvement, and what is good! Also, what you tell me help me find ways of making my stories more. And while I'm on the readability of my fic, I actually went through chappie 4 and although I didn't look through it for typos I got rid of all those problems with the three dots. Those were just bugging me.  
  
Without further ado, here's chapter six:

* * *

Getting With the Times

* * *

By Silver Indigo Sky

* * *

Rating: PG/PG-13

* * *

Chapter 6- The Plan in Action  
  
_BACK IN THE PRESENT TIME:_  
  
Rei, Minako, and Mamoru all stood together in a huddled group close to Setsuna. Setsuna was explaining to them the plan she had just solidified with Ami--the plan to fetch Usagi back to her rightful place in time!  
  
Makoto and Ami hovered behind the group with Luna and Artemis standing beside their legs. Makoto looked extremely disappointed at not being allowed to travel with the group, and be where all the excitement was. Ami for her part didn't look like she was too happy about being left out either, but at least she looked supportive. Makoto just looked distressed over the whole thing. Luna and Artemis looked undeniably relieved that at the current time no bickering was transpiring.  
  
After Minako had enraged Rei by pretending the pictures she had taken of the two cats were X-rated pictures of Yuuichirou and the priestess, Luna and Artemis had stealthily made their way into the peace and quiet resting outside of the disordered temple. Yet somehow, hardly three minutes after they had rested they had made it into the stress-free environment--with all of their limbs attached and everything--they were disenchanted to see the whole of the mob had found their way out of the doors of the temple as well.  
  
With Mamoru at the head of the stream of loud and riotous teenagers, the assembly of girls apparently running after him, they managed to transport their squabbling to where the kitty-lovers had just found calm. Luna had grunted and Artemis had cursed. They then decided that as small as they might be, they _had _to keep this group from strangling one another (and from giving them any larger of a headache).  
  
Somehow, with a huge miracle, the cats had managed to get the attention of the group who had to that point been yelling and screaming different things simultaneously in an all-out rant. The minute Luna realized she had their attention for real, she switched to lecture mode, the one she usually went into every time Usagi did something inappropriate.  
  
"All of this fighting is completely uncalled for!" the back cat began, Artemis standing slightly behind her and at her side. "You guys should be ashamed of yourselves! You are all Sailor Senshi, and of course there's Tuxedo Kamen. Your job as a team is to protect your princess--Sailor Moon, Usagi. Yet here you all are, fighting over the most trivial things—pictures of us!—and carrying on as if tomorrow the world will end!" Artemis nodded vigorously to emphasize the ridiculousness of it all. "Not to mention, you have no idea where the princess is all the while, or _when _she even is! For all we know, she _might _be surrounded by dinosaurs. And worse than that even, there is no other way for her to get back rather than for us to find her and _take _her back! And what are you guys doing? Instead of going out to search for your leader--your best friend, and in Mamoru's case, girlfriend-- like true senshi would, you call each other names on no other premise than you feel like it! While Usagi might be knee-deep in danger that we don't even know about, you guys were rioting and pretending to have pictures of each other having _sex_! How utterly _classless _and _despicable _can you get? While you probably need all the time you can get to make sure you reach Usagi soon enough that nothing might happen to her, you are wasting all of this precious time being genuine jerks to one another! And that's the truth! Meanwhile, your best friend is perhaps in the worst possible situation out there--forget about heaving embarrassing pictures, her _life _might be in danger! This is disgraceful; this is loathsome; this is appalling and dishonorable, and I hope you feel shame for your actions today for a long, long time." Luna ended with a forbidding tone in her voice which seemed to resonate throughout the air for at least a minute, constantly weighing down each and every senshi with its heavy words. For that minute everybody save for Luna and Artemis seemed to shrink down to half of the cats' size due to sorrow and regret.  
  
Without even realizing they came together, hugging and comforting each other, all the while apologizing for their obnoxious and discreditable behavior. All of the girls cried as they practically broke each other's chests in their forgiving hugs, and even Mamoru let a tear or two fall as he thought of his Usako in such peril. She needed him right now, and he would give it his all to get her back as soon as he could. They all would. And Mamoru would do all he could to make sure they did.  
  
Their faces were solemn with worry etched in every inch as they followed Luna and Artemis back into the temple. For the most part they watched the ground as the walked, too ashamed to look up after what they had done. They knew they had been wrong and juvenile to act like that, and they regretted even more having been so mean to each other, but to risk the life of the sweetest person in the world--their Usagi-chan--over such behavior--they just couldn't believe what they did! They just couldn't find themselves at arms with their actions from hardly fifteen minutes ago after Luna's speech.  
  
Now they were all sobered up, and ready and willing to leave to find their friend as soon as they could, regardless of what they'd have to do to get her. As Luna's words continued to sink in, they realized how much they missed her, as well as needed her to keep all their sanity and temper in check.  
  
And it was then that, with tears still brimming most of their eyes, Setsuna patiently began explaining what had happened. She gave them the good news about how Chibiusa's power was growing to its full strength, although a bit uncontrollably. She also gave them the bad news that because the strength of the power Chibiusa had been using changed so fast and unexpectedly while she had been manipulating the time key, and the power rushed out in such an untraceable explosion, there was no way possible to find where Usagi was now located in the history of time.  
  
Everyone present in the room turned to face the guardian of the time gate with fearful eyes. There had to be _some _way! They just _had _to find Usagi, and Setsuna just _had _to know of some way to find her...she just had to!  
  
Setsuna smiled slightly in response to their unasked question. "The best we can do is to troubleshoot, and to do that I have picked three of you that I think will be best to troubleshoot with. Rei, Minako, and Mamoru, you will be the ones coming with me on the mission to find Usagi."  
  
The three glanced at each other not knowing what to say or do. Unconsciously, they slowly stepped closer to Setsuna, more befuddled than ever. Behind them, Makoto was left to brood over what was meant by her not being one of the "troubleshooters." Ami, feeling out of place next to the circle of three that had formed around Setsuna, stepped back and settled beside Makoto.  
  
"I chose you three to come with me through the time portal because out of all of the people close to Usagi in this room, you guys have the most obvious connections that would lead to her, and the most obvious ways of detecting where Usagi is while we are swirling around in the time portal," Setsuna explained. "Mamoru, you are Usagi's destined lover, and ever since you were reborn in this world, and past then, you have always had an emotional and physical connection to her. You can sense when she is in danger and when she needs you, and you always find her dead-on using your instinct."  
  
Mamoru smiled. "Yea, and in Usagi's case, it's always been a miracle that I have that ability." He smiled a little as he remembered memories resurfaced from when they first met, and when he had first felt that tinge of pain which had ever since that date became his signal that he must turn into Tuxedo Kamen, and rescue his damsel in distress from wherever she may be.  
  
"And Rei, being the telepathic and highly gifted priestess you are, would have the ability to sense out your Usagi's thoughts from all of the Usagi's in the other time periods, and to use your "sixth sense" connection to track her down," Setsuna told her. "And the Senshi of Love, Sailor Venus, is always an excellent addition to the group. You have the rare gift of being able to feel bonds of love between two people. Seeing as how Mamoru and Usagi have the strongest love around, you can manipulate your power to see how far apart the lovers are from each other. You can use Mamoru's strong attraction with your knowledge and instinct of how love works to locate Usagi."  
  
"Yes!" Minako exclaimed. "I, the Goddess of Love, will stop at nothing to reunite to soul mates, lost and far apart from one another!"  
  
Setsuna smiled. "I'm glad. And I am fully confident that with you three, we will be able to find Usagi in no time. By troubleshooting, I mean that you guys, under my guidance, can use your powers to come to a conclusion on where Usagi might have gone. And if it turns out to be the wrong conclusion, we'll just go right back to the portal and look through another door. Although your connections to Usagi and how you work might be excellent, there is no saying how many times you'll have to try another door. In all honesty, you might get the right time period on your first try, and you might get it on your one-hundredth. There's just no telling how it will work out."  
  
All was quiet as the room's inhabitants chewed over what Setsuna meant. They all got what she meant, but they were more-or-less prepping themselves for what was to come.  
  
"But why don't I get to go?" a very upset Makoto asked.  
  
"I--I'm sorry, Mako-chan," Setsuna answered her with a genuinely regretful look on her face. "It would have taken too much energy, and been to hectic, to take all five of you with me through the time portal. Remember when we all went to Crystal Tokyo together? It was a scary experience I don't want to ever be held accountable for again! One of you could have gotten lost, or possibly even died, and I just don't want to have such a project as that again. I am sorry, though...."  
  
"Yea, I guess that makes sense," Makoto admitted grudgingly, bowing her head down in disappointment. Ami touched her gently on her shoulder and reminded her she wasn't the only one being left out of the action.  
  
Silence overtook the room once more. Everyone was lost in their own personal thoughts. Finally Setsuna once again spoke up.  
  
"It's probably urgent we leave as soon as we can, so if everyone is ready, and neither of you three need more time to do anything...then it would probably be best if we leave."  
  
Minako looked up surprised. "What? Now?!" Setsuna nodded her head. Minako looked to Rei and Mamoru. "Are you guys ready?"  
  
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," Rei stated.  
  
"Without a doubt I'm ready!" Mamoru said fiercely. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we'll find Usagi again, and the better off we'll all be!"  
  
"Mamoru's right; I'm ready too," Minako answered her own question.  
  
"Then, we can leave," Setsuna said. She led them outside into a field where no one would be able to see them float into the time portal. Makoto, Ami, Luna, and Artemis all came to watch.  
  
"On the count of three, I'll release the power and the time gate will slowly open up and pull us in," Setsuna informed the others. They nodded and shuffled around, anxious to get things going already.  
  
"Okay! One...two...,--"  
  
"WAIT!" Ami suddenly cried out. Looking furiously around her, she exclaimed to the others, "Where did Chibiusa go? I can't find her anywhere!! Please don't tell me we lost her too!"  
  
"Oh! Ooops!" Setsuna giggled to herself and blushed. "I forgot about her...how could I have forgotten about her...?" She got quizzical stares from around the grassy area. "You see, before when you guys were all over the whole hentai pictures thing, out of responsibility I decided it was my duty to drag Chibiusa to a room where she could neither witness nor hear what was happening. I put her into the upstairs bathroom. So when we're gone, it would be great if you either one of you, Ami or Makoto, could just take her out of there and explain to her what we're doing."  
  
"Of course," Makoto said.  
  
"Okay, thanks," Setsuna responded. "And now, it's time for us to time travel!" She once again rearranged herself, Minako, Rei, and Mamoru so that their hands were interlocking and their bodies were all touching one another. She lifted up her beautiful and dazzling garnet scepter, with the long silver stem and the glistening purple-red jewel on top. With one hand, she held it up high above all of their heads and began the count down.  
  
"ONE!" Everyone seemed to move an inch or two closer to one another. "TWO!" Everyone seemed to squeeze each others' hands a little tighter. "THREE!" Everyone seemed to close their eyes really tightly as the wand began glowing and a bright light circumscribed the group.  
  
Ami, Makoto, and the two cats were able to watch as the four bodies floated upwards through the shoot of light to they sky, and vanish as the light collapsed around them into a pin-point of nothingness.  
  
They stood there for awhile after they left, just gazing on at the spot where their friends had just been, and had so magnificently just disappeared from.  
  
"Wow," Makoto said.  
  
"They're gone," was Ami's input.  
  
"Now what should we do?"  
  
"There's nothing we can do."  
  
"Yea. It kinda feels funny not being able to do anything while your friend is in danger, because your other four friends put themselves into danger to do the only thing possible to save the one friend, And you're stuck with nothing you can do but to sit around and wait till they get back."  
  
"Yes," Ami nodded in agreement. "It's a different predicament we're stuck in this time."  
  
"Yea," Makoto looked over to Ami. "I think you should explain to Chibiusa what's going on."  
  
"I think I should too."  
  
"Or, maybe Luna can!" Makoto looked down to her feet where Luna had been last, only to find an area of grass that had been padded down in the outline of a cat. "Or not...."  
  
"No, I will," Ami said heading back into the temple. Makoto bounded up the building's stairs after her.

* * *

Setsuna, Mamoru, Rei, and Minako found themselves floating in an airless and dimensionless space of swirling colors spreading out for infinity. Without any sense of direction, all they could do was attempt to gain some kind of balance by standing very still as they adjusted to the empty yet unbearably dense atmosphere of the portal.  
  
"Everybody, grab hands!" Setsuna called out to the group, quickly taking Minako and Rei's hands in her own. Mamoru latched on to Minako. Together, all facing the same direction, they were able to look as one past the floating gateways to various times, spiraling down and around wherever they looked. The rows of ornate, gorgeous doorways never ended, and could be seen stretching out from anywhere their eyes went to. All but Setsuna breathlessly mumbled some kind of exclamation of disbelief. The whole sight before them was unbelievable.  
  
Setsuna laughed upon looking at the amazement on their faces. "It's not THAT great, you know!"  
  
"What are you talking about?!" Minako exclaimed. "This beats even the best science fiction film out there! And this is reality!" Setsuna chuckled.  
  
"So, are we going to use our powers now to find Usako?" Mamoru asked the group. They could all tell how anxious he was to get his girlfriend back safely, and how concerned for her well-being he was. "If she's stuck in a horrible time..." Mamoru's despondent voice trailed off.  
  
"Don't worry, Mamoru-san," Rei comforted. "We'll look for her now! Right now! And I can guarantee you we'll find her in no time! Just leave it to me, I can sense anyone's thoughts out there, and I'm sure I can grasp Usagi's no matter what door she's behind!" With that, she closed her eyes and began concentrating.  
  
She found herself squatting down onto the empty space and curling her legs against the seemingly solid emptiness that filled the time portal. Her eyelids creased greatly as she closed her eyes even tighter, and she let her chin rest against her fisted hands out in front of her as her concentration increased. She stayed in that position for at least five minutes before suddenly jumping up and out of her trance.  
  
When she opened her eyes she couldn't help but beam at the other three. "I found her!" she announced. "I know I found her! I could feel her! For sure I know it was our Usagi-chan! I know it! I found her! Ohmigosh, you guys! We got her!" Rei did a little leap off of the pseudo-ground and then ran over to Minako, who was cheering, and grabbed each of her hands with each of her own and started shaking them with joyous excitement.  
  
"We found her! We found her!" They started cheering.  
  
Rei bounded over to Mamoru and gave him a tug hug. "See?" she said. "Hardly an hour and we already have her back!"  
  
Mamoru smiled one of the biggest smiles Rei had ever seen. "Yea, but it _has _been more than one hour."  
  
"Maybe, but when we find her in less than ten minutes you will never remember this hour anyway." Rei's smile could give Mamoru's a run for his money as she sprinted over to Setsuna and nearly choked her with the force of her hug.  
  
"See, Setsuna, aren't I good? Looks like it will only take us one time to find her! It's a good thing you took me!" She removed her hands from around Setsuna and started hopping around a little more while Minako was giggling and Mamoru began breathing normally again.  
  
Setsuna opened her mouth and was about to say something along the lines of 'I wouldn't be sure of that just yet' when she watched Rei go over and hug Minako so tightly one would think she was trying to strangle her. The words died in her throat as she remembered how they had acted earlier. Perhaps they would find where Usagi was located on their first try, there was always that possibility. And if it turned out they hadn't, she might as well just let them stay hopeful for a little longer....  
  
So they all walked off in the direction that Rei's intuition led them in.

* * *

I know, you were all counting on that Usa/Usa/Mamo action and I didn't have it...I'm sorry if anyone is disappointed. I actually meant to split it up, and make one-half of the chappie take place with Usagi and the other half with Setsuna, but it just got so LONG. I really have to learn how to cut down on my detail...REALLY. But still, this chappie was necessary and where all the information is, and since I might have lost some of you on the chapter "The Plan" (or so my friend was scolding me for being confusing...), I figured I'd go in depth with what is going on in this chapter.  
  
Is it me, though, or do I just write way too much detail on things that just don't need detail. I totally wish I could be one of those authors who are nice and concise and finish their story in as many chapters as I currently have. At the rate at which this is going, it'll be a twenty- chapter fic, but it's all good because right now it's the summer and if I can pump out a chapter a week, I'll have it done soon! But don't be surprised if I miss weeks and etc.  
  
REMEMBER, GO CHECK OUT MY BIO for the notes on the story, they might contain one of your worries. ;)  
  
Oh and with a lot of the question you guys have sent me, I wish I could tell you what I'm planning, but I can't. That would just take all the fun out of it! But I do write with a purpose. You guys can just watch my plot unfold. ;)  
  
Until next week,  
  
SilverIndigoSky 


End file.
